Pokémon Platinum: Sinnoh Adventures
by Orangen
Summary: Platinum-based. Percy Antares finds out that training isn't exactly what she thought it was as she gets herself into constant trouble and learns a bit about herself. Between dealing with her hyperactive rival, her quirky starter, and Team Galactic, what could possibly go wrong? Chapter Twelve: Vs Cherubi!
1. Prologue: Vs Gyarados!

_Disclaimer_: I own Pokémon Platinum… My game chip is sitting right over here…

_Author's Note_: What with the upcoming Black 2 and White 2, I'm not entirely sure how much interest there still is in the fourth generation games. Writing a Sinnoh fanfic is something I've wanted to do for a really long time, though, so I figured I should stop putting it off for any longer. On the bright side, me delaying this for so long has led to a lot of differences from what I originally had planned, which I think will change the fic for the better. Anyway, here we go!

**Prologue: Vs Gyarados!**

"_With the increasing frequency of reports, our intrepid crew made the journey to Johto's Lake of Rage to investigate the rumors…"_

The old, bulky television's screen blurred slightly as the news reporter swung her arm broadly, gesturing towards the lake behind her. The crew spread out along the shore, a few of them stopping to question a couple of nearby trainers. After the pause, the reporter continued speaking, her voice a bit more excitable now.

"_However, other reports indicate that we may be too late. Local residents have mentioned that the supposed red Gyarados may already have been caught. Let's ask one of the nearby fishermen—"_

Static drowned out the rest of the woman's sentence, covering the screen for a few moments. When it cleared, the crew was now miraculously in front of Lake Verity, the interruption making it seem as if they had managed to travel between two countries in the span of several seconds.

"Hey, they had to have filmed that separately. This obviously isn't _live_ coverage. That would have made it so much more interesting—"

"Shut up and listen!"

"_So we turned our attention to the three lakes in Sinnoh, hoping to find an equally unique Pokémon. We started here in Lake Verity… Whoa! A flash of red, perhaps? Could there be relatives of the uniquely-colored Gyarados here in Sinnoh? The crew investigates further—"_

Frowning, Percy Antares leaned forward and pressed the power button on her practically-ancient, black-and-white television, cutting the reporter off mid-sentence again. She then turned around to see her friend, Leo Regulus, outright pouting. He jumped up from where he'd been sitting on Percy's bed, his arms folded across his chest.

"Why'd you turn it off?" he demanded.

"Come on," Percy groaned. "It probably wasn't even an up-to-date report, so even if there _was_ anything interesting in Lake Verity, it's long gone by now."

"How do you know that unless we actually go?"

Percy felt her eyebrow twitch as the blond boy glared at her. She knew she'd get dragged along whether she wanted to go or not, yet Leo's statement was too simplistic to help his argument.

"Look, Leo. We've been down there plenty of times before and seen nothing special, so what makes you think that something that happened over in Johto will change anything?"

"Whatever, Percy!"

Leo was now standing at Percy's bedroom door, his hand resting on the knob. He then flung the door open and started running down the hall towards the house's staircase.

"Meet me at the lakefront in ten minutes or I'm coming back and getting you myself!"

His voice echoed back into the room as he pounded down the stairs. Percy sighed, running a hand through her short, green hair. Last time Leo had wanted to go out somewhere, he'd managed to sling her over his shoulder and carry her out, despite being a few inches shorter and slightly skinnier than she was. Besides, although the boy could annoy her on occasion, it wasn't like there was much else to do around Twinleaf Town.

Grudgingly, Percy shuffled out of her room and headed down the stairs herself a few moments later. Fortunately, her mother was currently out of the house — not that Percy had a problem with her mother, but Leo's usual antics tended to worry the woman. _It's not safe to go to the lake_, she'd always say. _Even with the two of you together, you don't know what could happen_.

Despite being more cautious than Leo — not that that really took much — Percy still wasn't quite the worrywart that her mother was. The Pokémon that lived around Lake Verity were fairly tame, so it didn't matter much that she and Leo had put off getting Pokémon of their own. She highly doubted that anything would happen this time, either.

Locking the front door behind her, Percy broke into a slight jog as she headed towards the edge of town. Really, though, "town" was a bit of a misnomer. Twinleaf was barely larger than a neighborhood, and it only took a few minutes for Percy to reach the lakefront with her long stride.

Leo was already there, naturally, his brown eyes set in another glare.

"Eight minutes, Percy!" he said loudly. "Hurry up!"

"Hey, relax. How you enjoy anything when you're that hasty has always been a mystery."

Ignoring Percy's rather sarcastic tone, Leo turned around and marched down the lakefront's tree-lined pathway. Ahead of them, Lake Verity's clear waters sprawled out invitingly. The view was always nice, despite the number of times they'd seen it, with more trees and a few small islands dotting the horizon.

As usual, the lake was almost completely calm, and nothing seemed to be stirring near its surface. A flock of Starly flew overhead, enjoying the clear sky as they collectively dove around in a circle. Several moments later, a Bidoof trotted over to the edge of the water, curiously looking at the small waves. Percy rolled her eyes as Leo scampered over near the Bidoof, startling it, and he began to inspect the water as well.

"I doubt anything would come this close to the shore," Percy called. "Especially anything as big as a Gyarados—"

"Shut up, Percy!" Leo waved a hand as he scanned the horizon. "Come here and look with me."

She strode forward, admiring the gentle waves in the water rather than listening to Leo, who had started to ramble. True, she certainly wouldn't mind finding an unusually-colored Pokémon, but she couldn't expect to see one immediately after watching a report about one. That would be much too convenient.

"—and I should have thought to bring my mom's fishing rod with me—"

"You could have remembered if you weren't in such a hurry."

"—but I'd need some Pokéballs anyway—"

"You didn't even bring any Pokéballs with you?" Percy put a hand on her hip. "You're the one who wanted to come here so badly!"

Leo paused abruptly. "Can you stop being so sarcastic for just _one minute_? Oh, hey, look! I think I see something out there!"

He was gesturing towards something pretty far out in the distance. Squinting, Percy could barely make out a few waves stronger than the ones currently hitting the shore. It was probably just a school of Magikarp, as they did travel in fairly large groups… But then, as the waves grew closer, something didn't feel right. It was approaching them much too quickly to be a normal Magikarp school.

Suddenly, there was a large splash, obscuring whatever had just burst out of the water and soaking Percy and Leo. The Bidoof that had been sitting nearby squeaked loudly and scurried away, clearly terrified. As it turned out, the small Normal-Type had good reason to be scared.

A particularly large Gyarados was towering over the two teens, roaring. Leo seemed to have frozen, looking up at it in awe as the sun glinted off its red scales. Taking a step back as the angry sea serpent roared again, Percy grabbed Leo's arm.

"We've got to get out of here, you moron! You've heard how short-tempered those things are, haven't you?"

"But—but look at it! Have you ever seen a red Gyarados in person before?"

"Who cares about that right now? You just said you don't have any Pokéballs on you, so we can't do anything about it!"

Before Leo could reply, the Gyarados lunged forward. The two of them dodged instinctively, each leaping in opposite directions. With a snarl, the Gyarados seemed to be sizing up the two humans. It seemed to decide that Percy was stronger and thus a bigger threat, as she was slightly taller than Leo, and it lunged towards her.

It was fast, she'd give it that compliment. Percy tried to run backwards in order to keep her eyes on it, but running backwards meant she couldn't focus as well on where she was going. Before she had time to react properly, the angry Pokémon had clamped down on her arm with its mouth, the massive jaw being wide enough to hold her entire outstretched arm.

It would have been quite funny under any other circumstance how Leo's shrill screaming registered more on her than the pain in her arm did.

The next thing she knew, Percy was being flung backwards. She crashed into one of the lake's many surrounding trees, crumpling as the Gyarados turned towards Leo. All she could hear was him gibbering frantically as he backed away rapidly.

Oddly enough, before the Gyarados could lash out at him, an orange blur collided with it. Another roar filled the air, but this time it was one of pain rather than anger.

"Monferno, use Fury Swipes!"

An unfamiliar voice rang out, followed by the furious cries of the trainer's Monferno. It was hard to see, as Percy had been flung a fair distance and her vision had gone slightly blurry, but the monkey Pokémon seemed to be dancing all over the Gyarados's back, swiping at it with perfect timing. Just as the Gyarados would twist around to bite it, Monferno would jump further down its back, slashing at it.

"Get back here, now!"

The Monferno sprung off of Gyarados's tail, just barely making it to land without hitting the water. A Net Ball then flew through the air, colliding with the Gyarados's forehead. It growled in protest as it was surrounded by a red light and was dragged into the ball. However, struggle as it might, it couldn't escape from the Net Ball, and it didn't reappear out in the water.

The vague outline of the Monferno's trainer was visible walking calmly towards the lake. He bent down to pick up the Net Ball floating near the shore, and then he carefully wiped the water off on the leg of his jeans. After a moment of silence, he suddenly whipped around.

"Hey! How could you two be so _stupid_?"

Leo froze again. He'd started to slink towards Percy as she blinked and sat up slowly. The shocked look on Leo's face conveyed the fact that he was too surprised to speak for once.

As Percy's vision cleared, she could easily see the trainer's extremely icy glare. His dark blue eyes seemed to grow narrower and narrower as he stepped towards them. Percy noted his eyes almost perfectly matched the shade of his shoulder-length hair; she still couldn't really register the events that had just occurred for some reason, focusing instead on small, useless details.

"I mean, what were you thinking? Were you even thinking at all? Do neither of you ever watch the news?"

"Sh-shut up and listen!" Leo suddenly snapped, his voice cracking as he repeated the phrase he'd used earlier. "That news report is why we came here!"

"Oh, that's even worse, then!" the other boy continued furiously. "So you knew that a vicious Pokémon could be out here and came anyway? It's actually a good thing that you don't seem to have any Pokémon with you! You're so reckless with yourselves that you'd be a danger to any Pokémon you might get. Humph… At least Professor Rowan will be happy to see this Gyarados…"

With that, the boy recalled his Monferno and stormed away from the lake. Percy and Leo watched him for a moment, and then Leo looked down at Percy's arm. Her sleeve had been ripped up quite badly, but more importantly, there were deep fang marks all over her arm. Blood was still dripping from the wounds, and it had stained her entire sleeve.

"You… you need to get that arm checked out," Leo said lamely.

"You think?"

Percy shot him a look almost as icy as the Monferno's trainer had as she managed to stand up. Gingerly clutching her arm, she started shuffling away from the lake as well. She tried to ignore the dull pain in her back from the collision with the tree as she looked over her shoulder at Leo. At least he looked incredibly guilty, though it was unlikely that his regret would last very long.

"I told you we shouldn't have come."

"No, what you said was that there was probably nothing here!" Leo retorted. The quiver in his voice revealed how shaken up he still was, though.

"Whatever. Oh, my mom's going to be so mad when she sees this arm… _Oh, Persephone, how could you do something so dangerous_?"

"Yeah… She'd use your full name if she's mad, huh?"

Leo tried to force a grin. He then paused for a moment, and suddenly a genuine smile spread over his face. Percy stopped walking with a horrified look on her face. He was clearly cooking up some new scheme, and she didn't want to know what it was.

"What are you doing? Let's get back home. Right now."

"That guy mentioned Professor Rowan, right? That's the name of the researcher who lives over in Sandgem Town," Leo started eagerly. "I bet we could get him to give us some Pokémon. Then if we ever get into this kind of situation again, we'd be prepared!"

"No. No way," Percy replied flatly. "First of all, that implies that you actually intend to do this kind of thing again. Secondly, I don't care if that's not really what you meant, since the last time you had one of your brilliant ideas, _this_ happened."

She gestured down towards her limp, bloody arm as she finished. Leo's gaze was fixed on her arm for a moment, but he snapped out of it quickly.

"Yeah, but I just said that if we had Pokémon, it wouldn't matter!"

"Are you even listening to me, Leo?"

"Shut up and listen to _me_, Percy! We're going to go home, but tomorrow we're going to Sandgem Town, so be ready! Or else!"

"Ugh…"

Percy groaned as Leo darted ahead of her on the dirt trail. She was not looking forward to his schemes in the slightest, if only because she'd have an insane amount of explaining to do to her poor mother.

Yet she couldn't deny that the inherent challenge of the situation _might_ make it worthwhile.


	2. Chapter One: Vs Turtwig!

_Author's Note_: Now, last chapter used something more similar to Diamond and Pearl's beginning, but here we line up with Platinum a bit better. I'm aware that the Red Gyarados report was likely just meant to be one of Sinnoh's many shout-outs to the Johto games, but I was still disappointed that nothing ever came of it. Anyway, writing battles was something I kind of had trouble with in my other fics, so I'm trying to improve with this chapter…

**Chapter One: Vs Turtwig!**

"Don't be home, don't be home, _please_ don't be home…"

Percy grumbled under her breath as she pulled her key out of her shorts pocket and unlocked the front door of her house. True, her mother would find out what had happened sooner or later, but she'd prefer for it to be later. The explanation would be much easier if her mother didn't actually have to _see_ the injury, as the blood would make her worry even more.

Fortunately, all the lights were still turned off, indicating that the house was indeed empty. Sighing in relief, Percy darted towards the stairs and hurried up to the bathroom. She then dug through the cabinet under the sink, digging out some medicine and gauze.

Initially, Percy just attempted to roll up her sleeve, but the ripped fabric made it somewhat difficult—not to mention the material was somewhat thick, and she didn't want to end up with too much pressure on the fang piercings. There was a scissors near the gauze, and she hastily cut off the entire sleeve. It was pretty much ruined anyway, she rationalized, even on the off chance that all that blood would completely wash out.

Percy winced and bit her lip as she poured the medicine over her arm. The liquid bubbled furiously as it rinsed over all the punctures. She then wrapped the gauze around her arm fairly tightly; she frowned as she cut off the appropriate amount, as the fact that it covered her entire arm made her feel like she was making a really bad mummy costume.

Hurriedly, Percy walked across the hall to her room to change. It had been quite the stroke of luck that she'd come home to an empty house… If her mom was visiting Leo's mother, as she strongly suspected, the woman would no doubt be home soon, so she needed a clean shirt as quickly as possible.

After throwing off the vest she'd been wearing, Percy simply tossed her shirt and the sleeve into her trash can. Grabbing the first shirt she found out of her dresser, she counted herself lucky that she owned so many long-sleeved shirts. The shirt she'd just grabbed was white, so the gauze would be slightly visible if anyone looked closely enough, but the long sleeves still meant that it wouldn't be too obvious if someone wasn't paying attention. She then put her vest back on and went back out in the hallway.

Sure enough, almost immediately after Percy reached the staircase, she heard the front door opening. Her mother's voice then floated up the stairs.

"You up there, Percy?"

"I'll be right down."

Reluctantly, Percy headed downstairs, spotting her mother still near the door. If she _had_ been visiting Leo's family, it sure didn't show, as she looked too calm. Either that or Leo had finally learned how to keep his mouth shut for once…

"So, you went to the lake again?" Stella asked casually. "Leo just got back a minute ago, too. I'd really prefer if you didn't go out by yourselves, but as long as you're together, I guess it's not too bad… Did you see anything interesting?"

"No, nothing happened at all. As usual."

"Leo seemed pretty riled up about something, though. Well, I know it doesn't really take much to get him excited, but I could barely make out a word of what he said, what with how quickly he was talking…"

Percy snorted. "Something about that news report, probably. Did you see it?"

"You mean the one about how a red Gyarados was found in Johto?" Stella nodded. "It figures that Leo would be interested in something like that… If he tries to go out to the lake again anytime soon, don't let him go, okay? I wouldn't want him to run into anything like that."

"Of course, Mom," Percy replied dryly. _If only you knew…_ went unsaid.

"Good. Well, I'm going to dig through our little old refrigerator and see what we have for dinner, so you can go fool around with that new laptop for a few minutes while I start cooking."

Percy internally sighed in relief, hoping the subject of Lake Verity was permanently dropped. However, before she turned around to go back up to her room, her mother paused to pat her on the shoulder before going over to the kitchen. Naturally, Stella had to hit Percy's injured left arm, causing the girl to wince instinctively.

"Percy?" Stella raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure nothing happened?"

"Totally sure! Leo just accidentally knocked me over while we were there, and I hit my shoulder on a tree," Percy lied. "It'll be fine in a little while."

"If you say so… Let me know if it still hurts later, okay?"

Percy nodded as a hint of worry passed over her mother's face. She then darted back up the stairs, uncharacteristically nervous. Well, it had been _partly_ true—she _had_ been knocked into a tree, and it was _technically_ Leo's fault… But why was she bothering putting off explaining what had really happened? Percy found lying to be rather pointless, as she was typically fairly blunt and found telling the truth to simply be more convenient.

Whether or not she delayed it, Stella would certainly panic. Percy attempted to justify it as needing some time to cool off herself, despite the fact that she still found it difficult to feel the gravity of the situation. Sighing, she sat down on her bed when she reached her room, unable to resist glaring over at her TV as if it was the source of all her problems.

At least Leo had apparently managed to hide what had happened, which she had to admit was a small comfort. Percy was still not looking forward to Leo's plans for the next day, but there was little to be gained by her unusual amount worrying. Obligingly, she walked over to her desk and turned on her new laptop as Stella had suggested, smiling as it whirred to life. She'd always liked computers, and she could really use a distraction at the moment…

* * *

Percy admitted to herself the next morning that she hadn't slept well that night.

She had a tendency to sleep lying on her left side, which she couldn't do due to her arm. At least she hadn't bled through the gauze wrapping overnight; having to wash blood out of her bed sheets certainly wouldn't be fun. As she sat up and threw off her covers, Percy had to wonder why she was still dwelling on small, stupid details even after she'd had time to think.

Wasn't that normal for her, though? Yelling at Leo for wanting to go visit Professor Rowan certainly had made her feel better about the incident at the lake…

Shaking her head, Percy ran her fingers through her hair instead of looking for a brush. She then started digging through her dresser again. Sandgem Town wasn't that far away, she mused; although Twinleaf Town tended to be rather chilly, it wasn't like she'd be out too long. Percy settled on an outfit similar to the one she'd worn the previous day, a somewhat thin but long-sleeved shirt, a vest, and a pair of shorts. In an attempt to preemptively halt her mother's worrying, she proceeded to add a scarf and a pair of long stockings before putting on her boots.

Hurriedly, she headed downstairs and found her mother already awake, sitting at the kitchen table and absently reading a book. Stella usually woke up earlier than her daughter did, so that was no real surprise. The woman looked up curiously as Percy headed towards the door.

"Where are you going, dear? Didn't you just wake up?"

"Oh, sorry, Mom," Percy called, pausing as her hand hit the doorknob. "Leo wanted to go over to Sandgem Town today. I'm not really hungry, anyway, so don't worry about me skipping breakfast."

"How long will you be out, and what were you going to do?"

Percy chewed the tip of her tongue for a moment before answering. "Not too long, and we were thinking of going to the lab."

"You could have told me that you wanted to finally go get some Pokémon—"

"Just visiting! We don't know if we're going to get any Pokémon yet," Percy interrupted. It was true; although Leo seemed adamant on the issue, there was no way to tell yet if they actually were getting Pokémon or not.

She could hear Stella sigh quite loudly. "All right, all right. Just be back soon, okay?"

"Okay."

Percy quickly went out and closed the door behind her. Just as she finished locking it, something suddenly crashed into her, sending her tumbling back into the door with a decently loud thud. She heard Stella's yelling, though slightly muffled, as she blinked rather owlishly at the culprit. Leo was grinning sheepishly at her and scratching the back of his neck — of course.

"I'm fine, Mom!" Percy shouted through the door. Turning back to Leo, she raised an eyebrow. "Can you not do that?"

"Do what?" Leo replied innocently. "If you were out here sooner, I wouldn't have had to bump into you!"

"So now it's my fault? How was I supposed to know you'd be here so early?"

Leo ignored her as he turned around, pulling his hair into a very loose, messy ponytail. He simply waved over his shoulder afterwards, walking with his usual fast gait.

"Come on, hurry up."

After the initial annoyance wore off, Percy had to admit that she was actually fairly excited. She and Leo had gone over to Sandgem Town several times before, but it had generally been to go meet some friends at the beach. They'd never been to the lab before, despite having seen a few interviews with Professor Rowan when flipping through TV channels.

As they walked down the fairly short dirt pathway out of town, some Pokémon darted past them. One particularly brave Kricketot waddled alongside them for several moments before diving back into Route 201's tall grass. Fortunately, the path to Sandgem Town wasn't much longer than the one leading in the opposite direction to Lake Verity; Percy only had to endure Leo's increasingly-faster-paced babbling for a few minutes.

"…something really rare, I bet," he was currently saying. "I can't wait to show it off to my dad later."

"Look, Leo, what makes you so sure about that? I mean, we haven't even met the guy yet. Yeah, I'd like to get a Pokémon too, but I doubt he'd give something rare to two random kids."

"Shut up, Percy! I'm not letting you get me down today!"

Leo marched ahead of her, skimming Sandgem's horizon. They'd never directly been to the lab before, but they'd likely passed it several times before on previous trips. Sure enough, there was a large brick building not too far away with a sign marking it as the lab. Percy had to jog to keep up with Leo as he headed towards the lab and knocked on its large front door.

It only took a few second before the door opened. Leo immediately opened his mouth to speak, but his expression quickly turned to one of surprise and horror. Percy was sure she wasn't exactly keeping a straight face either — the door had been answered by none other than the trainer they'd seen the previous day. The blue-haired boy made no response other than to give them another icy glare before he instantly slammed the door shut.

"…That went well," Percy deadpanned.

"Does he actually work here?" Leo scowled. "I thought he maybe just _knew_ the professor…"

Before Percy could reply, however, she could very faintly hear a voice inside asking, "Orion? Do we have guests?"

"No, sir. No, we don't."

"Well, there was no need for you to slam the door, either way…"

With that, the door opened again, somewhat slowly. An older man was then examining Leo and Percy curiously, his gaze rather sharp. Percy recognized Professor Rowan from the interviews, straightening up instinctively; the man seemed a bit sterner in real life than he did on television. Leo, on the other hand, seemed to be wilting.

"Hey! We're here to get —" Leo started shakily; his voice made it obvious he was at least trying to return to his usual attitude.

Percy slapped a hand over the blonde's mouth. "Excuse him, Leo's a bit excitable. What he means to ask is —"

"No need to worry," Rowan finally said. "Come in, please. I was just wondering what you two possibly could have done to get Orion all riled up like that."

The two obediently followed the professor inside. Leo's eyes widened slightly as he examined the rows upon rows of bookshelves and assorted electronic equipment as Percy realized that Orion had to be the name of the boy who'd answered the door. As if to ascertain her idea, Orion was currently the only other person in the room; he was sitting at a table in the back, his arms folded across his chest and his gaze skimming over everything except for them.

"I ran into them at Lake Verity yesterday after you told me to go investigate that news story, Professor," Orion explained without any further prompting. "They're both horribly irresponsible. I apologize for slamming the door, as I know you dislike that, but I really don't think humoring them is a good idea."

"And why would that be?"

Orion seemed completely unworried by Rowan's cool gaze. "Apparently, they decided it was a great idea to go down there without any Pokémon with them. They're very reckless, so I doubt they'd take good care of a Pokémon…"

He trailed off with the same indignant tone he'd used the previous day. Fortunately, Percy managed to resist glaring at Orion as Rowan mulled over the boy's words.

"Well? Is he right?" the professor asked, his voice unreadable.

"It's my fault, really!" Leo blurted out. "So just let Percy have a Pokémon. It was my stupid idea to go down there, and she tried to talk me out of it…"

"It _was_ your stupid idea, but you're the one who insisted on coming down here," Percy replied, surprised at Leo's sudden bout of responsibility. "What was that you said about being more careful?"

"Uh…" Leo blinked, abruptly aware of Rowan's scrutiny again. "That is, I… I think that if we had Pokémon, we would… I mean, _I_ would… avoid doing stupid stuff like that?"

There was a long silence, during which Orion looked annoyingly smug, Leo fidgeted, and Percy twirled one of the longer pieces of her bangs around her finger. Rowan began pacing absently, and Percy was about to grab Leo and drag him back outside just to break the tension. However, the professor rapidly turned towards the briefcase sitting on the table. He took something — or rather, two things, Percy quickly realized — and faced them with an unexpectedly more genial expression. The change in Rowan's demeanor was a bit bizarre, Percy thought.

"Perhaps you're not as foolish as Orion seems to think you are… I do admit that going out to the lake unprepared was quite a careless thing to do, however." Rowan didn't seem angry now, though he did seem a bit apprehensive. He was still smiling, at least. "But it also takes a bit of courage. I think you two might have a bit of potential…"

"What?" Orion's eyebrows shot upwards as his eyes widened. He'd been leaning back in his chair, and the chair's front legs clattered to the floor as well. "Professor! I-I'm sorry, sir, but this is crazy!"

Rowan gave the boy a stern look, and Orion instantly shrank back. Percy couldn't help feeling a bit smug herself as Orion looked down at the floor, but she managed to resist the urge to stick her tongue out at him.

"Anyway… You've heard of Pokédexes, haven't you?" Rowan continued.

"We've heard about them on your news reports, yes," Percy answered. Not the she or Leo had ever really paid that much attention to the interviews, but they'd always watched at least a few minutes before going back to channel surfing.

"Good. That cuts down on the explanations, then." Rowan handed one of the Pokédexes he was holding over to Orion. "If you don't mind entering the data into one of these for me… Now, your names are Leo and Percy, you said?"

"Persephone," Percy responded defensively. She hated her full name, and while Rowan wasn't quite as intimidating as he'd initially seemed, she definitely didn't want Orion calling her by a nickname…

"No, Percy," Leo interjected unhelpfully.

"Persephone," Percy snapped.

Rowan and Orion both had their eyebrows raised, but continued pressing buttons on the two devices. After handing Percy her Pokédex with a slight glare, Orion shuffled away into a side room, seemingly unbeknownst to Rowan. The professor then handed Leo his Pokédex and turned back to his briefcase. He frowned after digging through it for a few seconds.

"Orion? I did leave Turtwig and Piplup's Pokéballs in here, didn't I?"

Orion's voice drifted over to them, along with what sounded like a freezer door opening. "Did you know we're almost out of mint chocolate chip ice cream, Professor?"

Rowan made an extremely disgruntled noise as he continued rifling though the briefcase. "We need to speak later, Orion. And never mind, I just found them."

"Didn't you have a Chimchar too?" Percy managed to recall that much, at least, as Rowan held out the two Pokéballs.

"Eh? Oh, yes, Orion's already training that one."

That made sense, Percy realized—Orion had used a Monferno at the lake yesterday. She was still a bit disappointed, however, as she'd gotten attached to the little Fire-Type when she'd seen its picture in the news. Before she had a chance to decide between the other two, Leo was already speaking up, rushing to a decision as usual.

"Well, that's fine with me! I wanted Turtwig anyway."

"Thanks for picking for me," Percy grumbled, elbowing him. "I'm okay with Piplup, though."

"All right, then." Rowan handed the two of them the appropriate Pokéballs, and then gestured towards their Pokédexes. "I've left my contact information in those, and I expect to hear from you every so often with how Piplup and Turtwig are doing. It would also be nice to hear how many Pokémon you've caught every once in a while… No matter how irresponsible you happen to be, I think this will help you both grow a bit. Understand?"

"Yes, sir," Percy nodded.

"Good. Now, then… Orion!"

They took that as their cue to leave, with Percy scrambling towards the door with as much speed as Leo for once. Neither of them wanted to hear the professor's certainly-harsh lecture, as that intimidating tone had returned to the man's voice. As Leo shut the lab's front door behind them, he leaned against it and sighed.

"That could have been worse," Percy pointed out.

"Are you kidding me? This is awesome!" Leo clutched Turtwig's Pokéball and pumped his fist into the air. "I told you we'd get something cool! I need to go home and call my dad right now!"

He darted back towards Route 201, accidentally dropped the Pokéball in his rush, and paused to pick it up, embarrassed. Rolling her eyes, Percy sauntered after him.

"Would you be careful with that? We're pretty lucky to get what we did, you know… And you better let the poor thing out of its Pokéball for a few minutes before you start bragging about it."

Leo was several feet ahead of Percy on the dirt path, but he still seemed to have heard her. He actually waited for her to catch up and blinked at her in confusion. His expression then changed to his usual grin.

"What, you wanna battle right now or something?"

"Huh? No, that's not what I meant at all," Percy replied flatly. "I just meant that you don't want Turtwig's first impression of you to be you ranting on to your dad about how cool you are."

"Right! So that's why we should battle right now instead!"

Percy sighed. There was no arguing with Leo's logic, or rather, his lack of logic, as he'd just keep insisting on it anyway… She reluctantly pulled Piplup's Pokéball out of her pocket and pressed the release button. The blue penguin materialized in front of her, giving her a slightly patronizing look as he glanced up at her.

"Whoa, now… Professor Rowan decided this was a good idea, so… Let's get along?"

Piplup seemed to be mulling things over as Percy trailed off. His eyes then drifted over to Leo, who had just released Turtwig, and then he looked back up at Percy and nodded. Turning back towards Turtwig, Piplup then wore an eager look on his face as he pointed at the Grass-Type.

"Pip!" he cried, causing Turtwig to step backwards slightly in confusion.

"T-Twig?" Turtwig replied, cocking his head to the side.

"This is going to be amazing!" Leo shouted. "Turtwig, use Tackle!"

"Peck, Piplup!"

Piplup needed very little prompting; he was already darting towards Turtwig and simply nodded when Percy issued the command. Turtwig looked slightly nervous, but obediently crashed into Piplup. The Water-Type stumbled slightly, but he easily shook it off and rammed his beak into Turtwig's side. Wincing, Turtwig shuffled backwards, eying Piplup cautiously.

Without waiting for another order, Piplup attempted to dive forward again with another Peck. Percy quirked an eyebrow; it was hard to tell if Piplup was actually getting into the idea of battling, or if he just wanted to beat Turtwig specifically. The Grass-Type was considerably less interesting in fighting, apparently, as he dodged the attack instead of countering on his own. Piplup hit the ground, and Leo burst into laughter as Piplup rolled forward and attempted to brush off the crash.

"Okay, Turtwig, this will be easy. Use Absorb!"

Turtwig closed his eyes, and a green aura surrounded both him and Piplup. As Piplup began staggering around awkwardly, the small scratches on Turtwig's shell from the Peck attack seemed to be healing up suddenly. As the green light faded, Piplup began panting while Turtwig looked rejuvenated.

"Use Tackle again!"

"Uh… How about a Pound attack, Piplup?"

Turtwig looked considerably more confident as he charged towards Piplup again. As he leapt forward, however, Piplup backed up slightly, raised his fin, and charged forward as well. The two small Pokémon collided, and Turtwig flew backwards through the air, as he'd been in mid-jump. However, while Turtwig managed to land on his feet quite easily, Piplup stumbled again and sat down. He didn't fall over — he hadn't quite been knocked out yet — but it was obvious that Piplup didn't have enough energy to keep battling for much longer.

"You wanna give up, Percy?" Leo smirked.

"Actually, I do," Percy frowned. Surprisingly enough, Piplup looked somewhat grateful as Percy recalled him into his Pokéball. "I don't want to push Piplup too far right away… Hey, is there someone going towards the lake?"

"Huh?"

Leo turned around, confused; the way they'd been standing, he'd been facing more in the direction of Sandgem Town, while Percy had a better view of the path leading towards Lake Verity. He nodded after squinting for a moment, however. While somewhat in the distance, there was clearly a man walking towards the lake.

"He must have gone by while we were battling," Percy concluded, shrugging. "Oh well, let's get on home—"

"Do you think he's going because he saw that report about the red Gyarados?" Leo interrupted as he recalled Turtwig. "We should tell him Orion already caught it."

"Whatever. It's not like _he_ has to worry about getting his arm chomped now that Gyarados is gone… Might as well go be nice, though…"

"Yeah, be nice for once!" Leo called.

Percy's eye twitched slightly as she jogged down the dirt trail. It only took a few minutes for her to reach the cluster of trees that marked the entrance to the lakefront, and she caught up to the man quite easily. Without thinking, she put a hand on his shoulder to catch his attention, and he stiffened slightly.

"Hey. If you were looking for that red Gyarados, it's not there anymore."

He shrugged Percy's hand off his shoulder as he turned around slightly. His pale blue eyes narrowed, and he pulled off a glare more icy than Orion's had been. Percy slunk back instinctively; the man's rather gaunt features made the glare even fiercer.

"That's not what I was looking for."

With that, he ducked around the tree branches and walked towards Lake Verity. Percy had to remind herself to breathe several seconds later; she hadn't realized she'd stopped. She wasn't quite sure what had happened, but there was something extremely strange about the man's eyes that she just couldn't shake off.

"Hey, Percy? What happened?"

She hadn't realized that Leo had caught up to her until he grabbed her arm. As her heartbeat slowed down, Percy simply shook her head and slowly turned towards the fork in the path that led back to Twinleaf Town.

"Let's just get home, okay?"

Leo was surprisingly silent as Percy trudged forward, and she found herself incredibly grateful as her mind swam in confusion…


	3. Chapter Two: Vs Kricketot!

_Author's Note_: Yeah, I'm having Percy catch another Pokémon pretty early in the story. Platinum added a good amount of extra Pokémon that I could have had her use instead, but I've always been pretty fond of Luxray. Also, for those who care, I always do illustrations of the characters in my fics, so if you want to see art for Percy, Leo, and Orion, hop on over to my deviantART page, TheLimeTangerine . deviantART . com.

**Chapter Two: Vs Kricketot!**

Percy sighed heavily as she unlocked her front door. Leo had split pretty quickly, no doubt eager to start that bragging to his dad he'd wanted to do. Fortunately, that would keep him occupied for a good while, but on the other hand, Percy was having trouble getting that excited herself.

True, she was definitely grateful to have gotten a good Pokémon — or a Pokémon at all, for that matter. Furthermore, although she'd put off training for a good while, training was always something she'd wanted to do eventually… Yet now that she'd actually gotten started, and had a really easy start at that, she just couldn't care.

Percy couldn't be getting burnt out already when she hadn't even had Piplup for an hour. Maybe she was just feeling like she was forcing herself.

Whatever the reason, one thing that relieved her was the fact that Stella was still sitting at the kitchen table, as it was something she'd expected. Her mother was evidently done with the book she'd been reading, as it was sitting next to her on the table, closed. Percy wondered when she'd finished; she hoped Stella hadn't been sitting there staring at the door for a while.

"How long have you been sitting there, Mom?" Percy raised her eyebrows as she kicked off her boots.

"Not too long. How did it go?"

Percy's socks skidded slightly on the wooden floor as she walked over to the table. Sitting down, Percy pulled Piplup's Pokéball and the Pokédex out of her pockets.

"Turns out we did get some Pokémon. I might go play around with Piplup later, but right now I don't really want—"

"Percy," Stella interrupted, her voice with a chiding tone to it. "I thought you always wanted to train!"

She shrugged. "I do. Just not right now."

"You don't want Leo getting a head start on you, do you?"

Percy's eyebrows rose further. "Um, hello, Mom? Are you there? You sound like you're actually all right with me going out and doing something by myself!"

Stella looked slightly wounded, and Percy had to admit to herself that she hadn't intended to come off as that harsh. Still, her mother did tend to be a bit overprotective.

"Of course I'm a bit nervous about it, but you know I want you to go out and have fun, too, right? Besides, it's something all kids do eventually, and even if you and Leo aren't traveling together all the time, I'm sure you'll be looking out for each other. So, want to introduce me to your Pokémon before you go?"

Percy admittedly needed a few seconds to process what Stella had just said. Then, suddenly, she realized what had been bothering her earlier. She hadn't not wanted to train; she'd just been worried about her mother's reaction!

Picking up Piplup's Pokéball again, Percy pressed the release button, and the penguin Pokémon appeared on the chair in between Percy and Stella. He gave a quick look around the room and then sniffed indignantly. It wasn't nearly as neat and organized as Professor Rowan's lab to be sure — the sink full of dishes was the least of the problems — and Percy had already gotten the idea that Piplup didn't impress easily, anyway. Still, she couldn't help frowning.

"Yeah, he seems a bit… well, arrogant isn't really the right word, maybe more like stubborn," Percy explained, catching Stella's baffled look. "I already battled with Leo on the way home, and Piplup at least seemed to enjoy that, though, so I think this could go well."

Piplup responded to the analysis with a rather surprised expression. Apparently, Percy had been pretty accurate, as Piplup nodded, albeit a bit reluctantly.

"Were you going to nickname him, dear?"

"Are you up for a nickname, Piplup?"

Percy honestly hadn't given it much thought, but Piplup merely shrugged, evidently neutral on the matter. And if he didn't mind, then she might as well think of something. Her mind was blank for several moments until she recalled something that Orion had said earlier.

"_Did you know we're almost out of mint chocolate chip ice cream, Professor?"_

"Mint Chip!" Percy exclaimed. "That's kind of cute, I guess."

"Like the ice cream flavor?"

It was now Stella's turn to raise an eyebrow. Piplup shrugged again, however, and Percy took it to mean that he had no objections. Grinning, Percy returned him to his Pokéball and started walking towards the stairs.

"I need to grab something to carry all the stuff I'll be getting," she called, answering the question that her mother was no doubt thinking.

Her room was really no less messy than the kitchen was, Percy mused as she arrived upstairs. It would take a bit of luck to find a bag remotely usable.

First step was to look under the bed, naturally, as she had a tendency to throw random things under there. Percy pushed aside a few boxes and noticed an old backpack in one of them. It was rather tattered, though, with one of the straps about to fall off. Shoving that aside, she then noticed a somewhat new, tan duffle bag that Stella had purchased for her once before they'd gone on a vacation. Figuring it was a much better option than the backpack, Percy decided to go ahead and use it rather than digging around for a few more minutes.

After searching through her room for a few miscellaneous items she thought she might need, Percy headed back downstairs. Stella was now standing near the door, surprisingly looking pleased rather than anxious. She _had_ warmed up to the idea of Percy leaving pretty quickly, but it felt bizarre anyway.

"All right, kiddo," Stella started as Percy approached her. "I expect you to call me pretty often to let me know how you're doing, okay? And it would be nice if you would come back and visit every once in a while, but I know that might be difficult sometimes…"

Percy refrained from rolling her eyes. Of course; her mother wouldn't _completely_ stop worrying. It was much better than not getting to leave at all, she reminded herself. Quickly, she gave Stella a one-armed hug before putting her boots back on and opening the door.

"Yes, Mom, I will. I'll call you soon!"

Percy almost thought she heard her mother sniffling as she closed the door, but she shook her head. That would be a bit much, even for Stella.

As she started walking back down the familiar trail to the edge of Twinleaf Town, Percy couldn't help absently looking over at Leo's house. He was likely upstairs in his room; she could picture him with a video-chat program open on his computer, with Turtwig sitting obediently on his lap as he rambled on to his dad with increasing volume. Percy snickered as she proceeded to picture Palmer impatiently trying to shoo the boy away so he could take a challenger at the Battle Tower.

Route 201 felt even more familiar to her than usual as she stepped onto the grassy path. Percy stretched as she walked, feeling almost bored with the area. As she scanned the route, she noticed a Starly hovering around nearby. She passed by a Bidoof a few seconds later, and she groaned; walking by the Pokémon made her realize that Pokéballs would have to be on the top of her shopping list.

Fortunately, once again it only took her a few minutes to reach Sandgem Town. Percy skimmed the horizon for the Pokémart, knowing to look for the distinctive blue roof. Sandgem really wasn't much larger than Twinleaf, so it wouldn't take her too long to reach it. Breaking into a slight jog, Percy made her way down the neatly-trimmed paths quite eagerly.

Shortly after she passed the lab, Percy accidentally crashed into someone. Staggering slightly, she balanced herself and grinned sheepishly.

"Oh, sorry about that — Orion?"

The blue-haired boy scowled and looked to the side as he silently held out his hand. Percy stared for a moment before realizing that he was holding some Pokéballs — two regular red-and-white ones, two Heal Balls, and one Dusk Ball, to be precise. Confused, Percy waited for him to say something, but he was still silent.

"What? Do you feel bad about earlier, and you're trying to apologize?" Percy folded her arms. "I can go buy some Pokéballs myself, you know, unless you think I'm too stupid to do that, too."

Orion narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. "No, Professor Rowan just told me to give you some Pokéballs if I saw you again, and he wants me to give some to your friend, too. I certainly wouldn't give you any Heal Balls or Dusk Balls otherwise."

"Oh, sure, that's a believable excuse," Percy smirked. "I'm still not going to turn down something that expensive, though."

Nonetheless, it did seem fairly likely, given the fact that Orion let her take the Pokéballs instead of yanking them away at the last second. Percy put them into one of her bag's many pockets, and when she looked back up, Orion was already walking away.

"Hey, tell him I said thanks," Percy called.

Orion didn't reply, but the fact that he paused indicated that he heard her. As he disappeared into the lab, Percy sighed and resumed walking towards the Pokémart. At least it was one less thing she had to buy, but she'd much prefer for Orion to be slightly less disagreeable. While Rowan had seemed fairly pleasant, Percy just hoped that the professor's assistant wouldn't cause Rowan to change his mind about her and Leo…

Percy carefully opened the glass door when she arrived at the Pokémart; there was a surprisingly large number of other trainers inside, and she didn't want to bump into anyone again. Not wanting to spend too much money so soon, she simply bought a few Potions and squeezed into the long line. The clerk looked a bit weary by the time Percy got up to the counter, and she honestly couldn't blame him as she handed him a few bills.

She put the Potions into her bag as she left, shoving the door open with her shoulder as she tried to walk and zip up the bag's pocket at the same time. Percy had never thought of Sandgem as being that crowded; maybe late morning was just a popular time to go shopping? She decided to make a permanent mental note of that just in case other marts turned out to be the same way.

The obvious next stop was the narrow trail on the north end of town. Percy had visited the beach on the southern coast of Sandgem Town with Leo plenty of times, and it didn't lead to anywhere except a permanently-in-progress construction site. Besides, even if she'd wanted to wade through some of the shallower water and use up some of her new Pokéballs, she already had Mint Chip and didn't need another Water-Type.

"Hmm…" Percy mused, observing the grassy landscape when the trail ended abruptly. "What would be a good thing to look for…?"

Naturally, she didn't expect any Pokémon to come running up to her as if on cue. Percy was just trying to recall what Pokémon lived on Route 202. Stella had actually taken her out to the Canalave City library a few times when she was younger, which naturally had required them to pass through the area. Bidoof, Starly, Kricketot… and wasn't there something else? She was honestly having some trouble remembering, as it had been a while since their last trip.

Percy wound through the pseudo-path marked out by some trees, chewing the inside of her cheek. She _knew_ there was another species of Pokémon that lived on the route… Why couldn't she remember what it was?

Suddenly, something nudged Percy's leg. She looked down and saw a somewhat large Shinx trotting along beside her. The Electric-Type blinked, her yellow eyes curious, as Percy stared down at her.

"Oh, hi there," Percy said offhandedly.

She then did a double-take. She'd just been thinking about how convenient it would be to run into something, and here was a Pokémon walking right up to her. Sure, the Shinx might have just been looking for someone to walk with for a little while, but there was always the chance she wanted to battle…

"Hey! Is that Shinx yours? Would you like to battle with me?"

Percy jumped slightly when she heard an unfamiliar voice. A girl in a pink dress was standing a bit further down the route, and she brushed a piece of her long purple hair out of her face as she started walking towards Percy. She only had one Pokéball in her hand and hadn't seemed to notice that Percy had Mint Chip's Pokéball clipped to her belt; she'd clearly assumed that that Percy had only one Pokémon as well — which was true for the moment — and that her Pokémon was the wild Shinx standing next to her.

"Well, do you want to battle?" Percy looked back down at the Shinx, temporarily ignoring the fact that she should just tell the other girl the truth.

"Shi!" the Shinx cried, surprisingly nodding in agreement. Maybe she was just bored…?

"All right, then," Percy replied.

"Oh, great! I've only battled a couple other trainers so far, so I really need the experience… Oh, my name's Carina, by the way."

"I'm Percy — that's just a nickname," she hurriedly explained when Carina raised an eyebrow at the boyish-sounding name. "And don't worry; I've only had one battle, myself."

"I feel better now," Carina grinned. "Okay, come on out, Viola!"

A Kricketot materialized next to Carina when she pressed the release button on her Pokéball. Percy nodded to Shinx, and she got into a ready pose.

"Use Leer, Shinx," Percy called.

She was admittedly unfamiliar with Shinx in general, and thus was unsure as to what they might know. Fortunately, getting Leer right was easy enough; a lot of Pokémon could learn that. Shinx glared at the opposing Bug-Type, causing her to wilt in fear.

"Hold on with Bide!" Carina countered, sounding confident.

Viola obediently stood up straight, bracing herself for any incoming attacks. Shinx looked up at Percy somewhat hesitantly. Percy was familiar with the move Bide, at least, as Shinx seemed to be; if she couldn't knock out the Kricketot quickly, they could be in trouble.

"Just give her a Tackle," Percy attempted.

Shinx charged forward, crashing into Viola and causing her to stumble. A light bruise appeared on her side, but she regained her footing and braced herself again, now looking even more determined than she had before. She still seemed to have a decent amount of energy left, and Percy doubted that another Tackle would defeat her… Percy sighed, hoping disrupting the Bide with another Leer would be good enough.

"Try Leer again!"

"Strike back now, Viola," Carina responded.

Another surprisingly-fierce glare formed on Shinx's face. Viola raised her stubby arms to retaliate, wincing slightly as she saw Shinx's expression. However, she managed to collide with the Electric-Type with more force than the earlier Tackle.

The impact caused Shinx to tumble backwards. She got back up on her feet, but was clearly out of breath. As Percy had expected, the Bide move had stored up a pretty good amount of power. Fortunately, Viola was now quite intimidated by Shinx's moves, indicated by how she was shuffling backwards. Hopefully they wouldn't have to worry about another Bide…

"Let's see how another Tackle goes."

Shinx leapt forward slowly, but she had a determined look on her face. She built up a bit of speed as she darted towards the Kricketot, and they collided with a surprisingly loud thud. Viola collapsed to the ground, eyes closed, and Shinx stood up despite how heavily she was panting now. She managed to shoot Percy a grin as Carina frowned.

"Oh… I was feeling pretty good about that," she mumbled as she recalled Viola.

"You almost had me there for a minute, though," Percy responded, scratching the back of her neck.

"Yeah! That's true." Carina perked up a bit as she started to turn around. "Well, I better get over to Sandgem and heal up Viola… Maybe we'll see each other again sometime?"

"That could be fun. See you around!"

Percy waved as Carina walked away. After a short pause, she glanced down at Shinx, who was still looking pretty tired. She remembered the Heal Balls that Orion had given her and pulled one of them out of her bag.

"Hey, thanks for battling with me just now. I can heal you up here quickly and then let you go if you want…"

Shinx shook her head as Percy trailed off. Instead, she just raised a paw and tapped the side of the pink ball, looking up at the girl intently. It didn't take long for Percy to realize what Shinx meant.

"So you do want me to catch you, then?"

"Shinx!" she cried excitedly.

"Awesome! Let's do this!"

Percy tossed the Heal Ball towards Shinx, and she willingly pressed the capture button with one of her paws. The typical ray of light shot out of the button, and as Shinx was withdrawn into it, the Heal Ball barely shook. It then clicked shut seconds later, and Percy bent down to pick it up. She smiled broadly after she clipped the Heal Ball onto her belt next to Mint Chip's Pokéball.

"I really am off to a good start."

With that, Percy picked up her speed as she continued weaving around Route 202's many trees, eager to get on to the next city.


	4. Chapter Three: Vs Piplup!

_Author's Note_: This is more of a fun little chapter; it's probably going to be the only one with no battle in it, for one thing, though it's still got a "Vs" title for the sake of consistency. It's fairly short compared to the previous chapters, but I promise most of the other chapters should be a bit longer. And, of course, what kind of Platinum story would this be if I didn't mention the, uh, "incomparable" Looker? Plus, there's a mild reference to Pokémon Special, and fans of that should catch the shout out pretty easily.

**Chapter Three: Vs Piplup!**

Percy had been to Jubilife City several times before, but she still found the place to be rather impressive. She slowed to a halt as she passed through the iron gates at the southern end of the city, and, as usual, she felt a slight sense of awe as she took in all the large buildings. It was probably just because she was so used to the tiny-by-comparison Twinleaf Town, and it always embarrassed her slightly, but she couldn't help getting excited.

Since Shinx's energy had automatically been restored by the Heal Ball, Percy didn't need to bother stopping at the large Jubilife Pokémon Center. Instead, she decided to wander around the city a bit before moving on. She was in no hurry, since Leo wasn't around to instantly drag her off to some place with a Gym like he no doubt would if he were there. Even then, there were two adjacent cities with Gyms, and a third one wasn't much further, so Percy had plenty of time to make up her mind.

After taking a few steps, an idea popped into Percy's mind. She grabbed Mint Chip's Pokéball and pressed the release button, and the Piplup appeared beside her seconds later. He looked up at her with his familiar indignant expression, but Percy flashed him a grin.

"Hey, Mint Chip, let's go for a little walk. I thought it might be more fun to let you out of your Pokéball."

"Pip," he answered sourly, and gestured out to the sidewalk in front of them with a broad wave. Something like _'You go for a walk by yourself'_ was probably what he meant.

"Well, fine. You don't have to walk if you don't want to, but I still want you out here."

With a smirk, Percy bent down and picked Mint Chip up. Several people looked over as the Water-Type began chirping out protests, but Percy was undeterred. She placed Mint Chip on her shoulders, and he surprisingly quieted down eventually and made himself comfortable. Mint Chip's rather large head rested on top of Percy's, and he actually seemed slightly interested as he started gazing in various directions.

"See, that's not so bad, is it? Now, let's go look around!"

Percy strode forward, and Mint Chip shifted several times in order to see things better. They drew a couple of stares as they walked, though most people seemed more curious or surprised than anything else.

After a few minutes, a large, neon sign caught Percy's attention. Mint Chip impatiently tugged on Percy's hair when she stopped walking, and she absently grabbed his fin to make him stop. They'd just walked by the Pokémon Watch Company — everyone just abbreviated it to Pokétch, but the sign still read the full term — and the sign was advertising a fifty-percent-off sale.

"I could use one of those things," Percy mused aloud.

"Pip," Mint Chip responded crossly.

"Oh, calm down, I'm not going to make you go back down—"

Percy abruptly cut herself off. The door to the adjacent television studio had just opened, and Orion was walking out with a rather bored look on his face; his black jacket made him easily noticeable against the brightly-colored building. He then noticed the same sign Percy had, and, after a moment's consideration, decided that he could also use a Pokétch. Before Orion could open the building's glass door, Percy darted up to him and grabbed his shoulder, with Mint Chip squeaking in surprise at her speed the whole way.

"Hey! How'd you get over here so quickly?" Percy asked with a raised eyebrow. "I saw you right before I left…"

Orion snorted and rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, Persephone. I'll ask your permission the next time I go somewhere. Professor Rowan just decided that he wanted me to go around and do some extra research for him, so I wanted to stop here before I left."

"Hm. Well, I've heard that Pokémon Watches are pretty useful myself, but I haven't gotten one yet, either."

"Oh, they are," Orion agreed, and he sounded somewhat enthusiastic for once. "They just go around your wrist like a normal watch, and they have buttons on the sides for switching through all the applications they have…"

Mint Chip nudged Percy as Orion was speaking, and Percy looked down as the Piplup pointed at Orion's wrist. While he'd been talking, Orion had unconsciously rubbed his wrist and then started tapping the side of his hand, his gestures lining up perfectly with what he'd been explaining. Percy snickered, and Orion looked a bit taken aback.

"What's so amusing?"

"You were acting like you had a Pokétch just now, weren't you," Percy answered, ending with more of a statement than a question.

"I definitely was not," Orion snapped.

"You definitely were! Whatever, I'm just going to go get one."

Percy unceremoniously shoved past Orion to open the door, still giggling at him as he hurried in after her. The Pokétch Company's lobby was fairly large, but it was easy to tell where they were supposed to go. There was a glass table set up in the middle of the room, and a line of trainers was gathered around it. Fortunately, the group was surprisingly small, and Percy and Orion didn't have to wait too long.

The pair of employees sitting behind the table looked somewhat tired, indicating that there had probably been a larger group earlier in the day. They gestured towards the box on the table as Percy and Orion walked over to them.

"We've got them in plenty of different colors," the man mentioned, stifling a yawn.

As Orion dug through the box, Percy stood back and watched for a few seconds. Mint Chip seemed to be observing as well, as he tugged on Percy's hair again as Orion set a few of the watches down on the table. The Piplup then pointed at a white Pokétch with a red strap, and Percy picked it up for a closer look.

"Well, I guess this one's fine," she mumbled, shrugging.

She then glanced down at the sign hanging from the table to see the price and winced. Digging through her pockets, she realized she had _just_ enough money for the Pokétch; she'd been incredibly lucky that she hadn't had to buy any Pokéballs earlier. As she handed the bills to the workers, Percy slipped her Pokétch onto her wrist and watched as Orion selected a blue one with a white strap.

"Thank you for your service," the female employee said with a smile.

Percy sighed as she and Orion turned around to leave. She'd definitely have to be more careful with her money from then on…

"Hey, uh, thanks again for those Pokéballs earlier," Percy called. "If you hadn't given me those, I wouldn't have been able to afford that Pokétch just now."

Orion looked away as he grumbled, "I told you, that was the professor's idea. Don't worry about it."

Was he blushing, or was the reflection of the mostly-red advertising sign just playing tricks with the light? Either way, Percy smirked, as Orion still looked somewhat uncomfortable. Before she had the opportunity to say anything else, however, Orion looked up with a rather baffled expression on his face.

Curiously, Percy faced in the direction that Orion was looking. A man in a trench coat was weaving his way through Jubilife City's crowded sidewalks at a rather uneven pace; he would take several quick steps, pause, walk a bit more slowly, and repeat the process. He was also looking around furtively, as if he was trying to blend in and search for someone. Thanks to his bizarre behavior, however, he was drawing quite a bit of attention.

"That guy is more than a little suspicious, don't you think?"

"Yet something tells me I really don't want to know what he's doing, either."

Orion answered Percy's question with a slight frown. As they started to walk away, the man in the trench coat looked up sharply and noticed Mint Chip sitting on Percy's shoulders. He then hurriedly approached the pair, having to apologize to a few people he shoved past.

"That Pokémon, it is rare, is it not? Where have you taken it from?" he asked in a rush.

"Um… 'Taken it from'? What do you mean?" Percy puzzled over his odd phrasing. "Hey, what are you even doing, anyway?"

"I am looking for suspicious individuals on behest of the International Police, and suspicious you are! For that Pokémon, you have likely stolen!"

The man's voice was increasing in volume, and he was waving his arms wildly as he spoke. Plenty more people were stopping to stare at him, and Percy felt her eyebrows shoot up her forehead as she shifted uncomfortably at the attention. Orion was no help at all; he'd started chuckling and was trying to suppress his laughter by pressing a hand to his mouth.

"First of all, are Interpol agents allowed to announce what they're doing? And secondly, I'll have you know I didn't steal Mint Chip from anyone. I got him from Professor Rowan when I got my Pokédex."

Percy tried and failed to keep her normal sarcastic tone out of her voice as she spoke. She then pulled her Pokédex out of her pocket, pressing a few buttons on it until she found her Trainer ID page. A triumphant grin spread over her face as she handed the device over to the detective.

He stared down at the Pokédex for a few seconds, his eyes rapidly moving between the screen, Percy, and Mint Chip. Eventually, a mixture of relief and embarrassment spread over his face as he handed the device back to Percy.

"Apologies must be offered! I must not jump to conclusions," he announced. "I shall tell you my codename in return. It is Looker."

"Again, is that something you should even be telling us? And in the middle of a crowded street, no less."

Orion managed to stop laughing to ask the question, and he now had a blatant look of disbelief on his face. Looker seemed to miss the expression as he went on, however.

"Owning a Pokédex is not something all can do! It indicates you are responsible and trustworthy," Looker responded, his tone indicating that he thought his analysis should be obvious to everyone. "So now, if we ever meet again, cooperate with me you must!"

He strode away, this time met with a wide berth. Percy and Orion both stared rather blankly after him before turning to each other and simultaneously raising an eyebrow.

"What just happened?" Percy deadpanned.

"I've got no idea," Orion responded, equally deadpan.

"Well, whatever. Sorry, buddy, but you're going back in your Pokéball. I don't want to repeat that ever again."

Mint Chip squeaked indignantly as Percy returned him to his Pokéball. Sighing, she clipped the ball back on her belt and folded her arms over her chest.

"Hey, Orion? Can you do me a favor and _not_ mention this to Professor Rowan?"

After a pause, the boy caught the implication and nodded. "Right. You think it would be awkward if he finds out someone thought you stole Piplup. Of course, you _didn't_ steal him, so I don't know why it really matters to you…"

"Come on," Percy groaned. "Please?"

"All right, all right. I get it. Now, if you don't mind me, I've got important things to go do. I think I'll start by checking out what Pokémon live on the route east of here…"

Orion brushed a piece of his hair out of his face as he strode away. Pursing her lips as she watched him leave, Percy rolled her eyes. Honestly, just when she'd been starting to think Orion might have a nice side after all, he had to go and be a jerk again after all…

Trying to shrug it off, Percy stretched and then scanned Jubilife City's busy streets again. There was no reason she couldn't do a bit more sightseeing before she went off to do "important things," too, after all.


	5. Chapter Four: Vs Budew!

_Author's Note_: This might be something I could have tacked on to the last chapter, as it's also fairly short, but I still feel like the last one cut off at a good place. I don't want to shove _too_ much into each chapter, and this at least means that Percy doesn't catch two Pokémon two chapters in a row. Also, I need to say that while my reason for her not going to Floaroma Town right now isn't a _whole_ lot better than "you need an HM move you can only use after getting a specific badge, which is very conveniently the badge you get in the next town over," I think it's at least _slightly_ better.

**Chapter Four: Vs Budew!**

"Well, since Orion said he was going east of here…"

Percy thought aloud to herself as she arrived at the northern gate of Jubilife City. There was a large, grassy field extending past the edge of the city, with a rather steep mountain in the distance. Perhaps she could catch another Pokémon, and, although it was a fair distance, maybe she'd even go on to Eterna City for the gym…

She'd walked several more feet when a screeching Starly drew her attention upwards. Percy considered catching it for a moment, but then she paused to wonder what was upsetting it so badly. The bird Pokémon seemed to be flying more slowly than many of the other Starly she'd seen before in her life, with sagging wings and a generally limp body.

It wasn't until just before the Starly crashed into a nearby tree that Percy noticed some yellowish spores clinging to his feathers. A quick look around answered her question before she could ask it. A Budew was sitting under the tree that the Starly had just crashed into, and he was mustering up the fiercest look his cute little face could manage. The Grass-Type then turned down to some berries sitting in front of him and started to chew on them.

"Better steer clear of that thing, then," Percy grumbled.

Getting hit with a Stun Spore attack definitely wouldn't be her idea of fun. Percy took a few broad steps, trying to avoid the Budew, and then promptly felt ridiculous for worrying so much about such a tiny Pokémon. However, she winced when she rather noisily stepped on a small fallen branch, causing the Budew to look up her warily.

"I'm not going to take your berries!" she called.

The Budew didn't waste a moment jumping towards her, though. While the stems on his head opened up slightly, he paused for a moment. Sighing, Percy reached for Mint Chip's Pokéball and released him. He glared at her as if to ask why she was sending him out against a Grass-Type, and Percy frowned. Shinx wouldn't really be at much of an advantage, either.

"Just use Peck, okay?"

Mint Chip folded his fins and gave Budew a patronizing look. Budew took the opportunity to release a Stun Spore from his buds. Finally, Mint Chip darted forward to attack right before the yellow powder would have hit him.

Budew skidded back a few feet after Mint Chip's beak hit his side. Panting, he attempted to use Stun Spore again. He stumbled around a bit, causing the attack to miss again, but he had a determined look on his face.

"Now try Pound!"

Eagerly, Mint Chip slammed his fin into Budew. He proceeded to flip backwards, as Budew had a greenish aura around him; it was clear that he'd been about to use Absorb. Even if Budew healing himself wouldn't have put him at an advantage, the fact remained that Mint Chip would be weak to the move.

"Another attack would probably knock Budew out, but he's putting up a fight," Percy mused.

That quality could make Budew a good team member, but Percy wondered if it was really a good idea to catch him, as he was still giving her an angry look. It was worth a try, at least, and she could always let him go later if he wanted that… She started to reach for a Pokéball, but changed her mind and grabbed for the second Heal Ball she'd gotten instead. Perhaps getting automatically healed would make Budew happy.

Budew gave Percy a surprised look as she tossed the Heal Ball at him. However, he apparently didn't put up much of a resistance, as the ball barely twitched before locking shut. Percy grinned as she leaned down to pick up the Heal Ball; surely even Orion would be impressed that she'd already caught two Pokémon.

She turned around to recall Mint Chip, who now had a rather bored look on his face. Before Percy walked further down the route, however, she paused and looked down at the berries Budew had been eating. She hurriedly scooped them up and stuck them into one of the smaller pockets on her bag. At the very least, it would be a nice gesture for Budew, and if he didn't want all of them, then they might come in useful later.

"Now, I know there's a cave up there somewhere," Percy said, thinking aloud again as she turned towards the cliff in the horizon.

Stella had taken her to Floaroma Town before, so Percy remembered a few details about the route. She couldn't remember too much, however, as they'd only gone one time. Once Stella had heard that the cave connecting the two segments of Route 204 was prone to rock slides, her nervous side had kicked in, and she'd refused to take Percy there anymore.

Still, the south end of the route was fairly short, and it took Percy under ten minutes to jog up to mountain. It couldn't be too difficult to figure out where the cave entrance was… Sure enough, while it was fairly narrow, Percy had practically walked straight up to it. She had to turn to the side slightly to fit through the entrance, but the cave was wide enough from there on out.

It was rather humid, and Percy grumbled to herself when she started sweating almost immediately. A large lake rested at the top of a slope — the likely culprit for the humidity, she realized.

As Percy carefully stepped around some rocks, she stopped near the lake and noticed a few Psyduck floating lazily in the water. She then shook her head, deciding to leave them alone; she'd just caught a Pokémon, after all. Not to mention she'd already decided against getting another Water-Type…

Percy turned to the opposite side of the tunnel and promptly groaned. There was a sloped pile of rocks reaching almost up to the ceiling. While she hadn't expected the area to be completely clear, she still hadn't expected that big of a blockade, either…

"I bet I can still climb over it," Percy muttered.

Sure, it wasn't entirely safe, but the slope of the rocks was fortunately pretty gradual… Taking a deep breath, Percy put her hands down first, checking for spots where the rocks were steadier. She then raised her feet and took a few slow steps.

Percy grinned after she'd covered a decent distance. She was going incredibly slowly, but with a bit of luck, she'd get to the top without any major trouble. Then she'd just be able to shove some of the stones out of the way and climb down over the other side.

Just when her confidence was getting even higher, Percy's foot snagged on a large, loose boulder she'd thought had been stable. She moved her foot aside as the boulder tumbled down to the ground, and she sighed in relief. However, when she put her foot back down, the rocks surrounding the one that had just fell started trembling and dislodged as well. Percy's eyes widened as she tried to scramble to the side, but her hasty movements caused several more stones to start falling out as well.

The next thing she knew, Percy was lying on her back with a large pile rocks on top of her left leg. She'd fallen so quickly that it took her a moment to register what had happened. Sitting up, Percy winced as she gingerly rubbed the back of her head. Scowling, she tried to pull her leg out from under the rocks, and they clattered noisily as they were dragged around.

"So much for that idea…"

Percy sighed as she looked down at her foot. It was twisted at an odd angle, and it was throbbing slightly. She put both her hands down and carefully tried to turn her foot over. It hurt more sharply as she did so, but at least it was still capable of moving. That seemed to skew the odds more towards having a sprained ankle rather than having a broken bone, though that was only a small comfort.

While Percy was far from a medical expert, she'd had more than enough experience with sprains and broken bones. She'd fallen out of many of the trees around Lake Verity, thanks to Leo repeatedly daring her to climb them when they were younger, and it was easier to list the number of places on her body that she _hadn't_ hurt in some way. Eventually, Percy had at least gotten a mild idea of how to tell the difference between sprains and breaks.

She managed to stand up, but she had to lean against the wall of the cave to support herself. There was a more persistent throb in her foot every time she set it down; while it may not have been broken, she'd probably sprained her ankle pretty badly.

Percy felt relieved when she managed to limp her way out of the cave; the fresh air outside was a welcome change. Although she wasn't too far from Jubilife City, it would take her a little while to get there at her current pace, and the change of scenery made her feel a bit better. She repeatedly looked down at her Pokétch as she walked; it seemed to be taking an unbearably long time.

"Finally!"

Percy couldn't help cheering when she reached the northern gate again, not caring that her declaration drew a few stares. It would be easy enough to get to the Pokémon Center from there, fortunately; while Jubilife was large, she knew her way around it well enough. There was no way Percy was going to try to go over to Oreburgh City that day, not with her foot the way it was, and it was getting pretty late now anyway…

Her limp had worsened by the time she reached the Pokémon Center. Once again, Percy drew some stares when she entered the building; she was practically dragging her left leg behind her, and she was sure she didn't have the most cheerful expression on her face. One of the staff members rushed over to her from where she'd been standing by the counter, looking anxious.

"Are you all right, Miss?"

"Yeah… I just need to sit down. Do you guys have a spare room open?"

"Yes, we do. Just one — you're lucky. What happened?"

Percy scowled again as the uniformed woman led her towards the hallway off to the side of the lobby.

"There was a rock slide in that cave on Route 204. I think I just sprained my ankle, but…"

"That's the second one this week… We'll call a crew to go check that out first thing in the morning. Hopefully it'll be cleared by the afternoon… Oh, here you go."

The woman stopped in front of a half-opened door and handed Percy a key. She nodded as she turned around to walk off, and Percy staggered into the room.

After she closed and locked the door, Percy instantly sank down onto the bed. She was fortunate that Jubilife's Pokémon Center was large enough to offer individual rooms instead of one common room like many others had, even if the number of rooms was limited. As Percy tried to force off her boot, she thought about how awkward it would be to tend to her ankle in front of a bunch of people.

It took some effort, but Percy managed to free her swollen foot, and she tossed her boot onto the floor rather unceremoniously. She then dug through her bag and pulled out an extra scarf she'd brought along. It wouldn't be nearly as good as a real bandage, but it was the only thing she had that could compare… Wrapping the scarf around her foot fairly tightly, Percy stretched her leg out to the side and proceeded to grab one of the bed's pillows. She propped it under her foot and then sighed.

"First my arm, now my ankle. Why is it always my left side that gets hurt? Right after I start training, too…"

Percy idly scanned the room after making her complaint. It was rather sparsely furnished, which was understandable, given that Pokémon Centers didn't exactly make a lot of profit from their services. Still, apart from the bed, there was a fairly nice desk and a comfortable-looking chair.

Upon looking at the chair, Percy got an idea and grinned. She took her three Pokéballs off of her belt and released Mint Chip, Shinx, and Budew. Mint Chip immediately claimed the chair while Shinx and Budew looked around curiously.

"Hi, guys… Oh, uh, Budew, I saved your berries."

Percy dug through her bag again and pulled out the berries, glad that they hadn't gotten too squished. Budew gave her an appreciative look as he eagerly took the sour-smelling Aspear berries in the group, leaving behind several assorted ones. Experimentally, Percy handed the rest of them over to Shinx and Mint Chip. Shinx ate a few Pecha berries, while Mint Chip didn't seem to have much of a preference and pecked at a few random ones.

Percy put the few remaining berries back in her bag and looked back at her Pokémon. Budew and Shinx seemed to be warming up to each other quickly, as Budew had waddled over to Shinx and the two seemed to be conversing — not that Percy could understand a word of it, of course. Despite the fact that Mint Chip was sitting a few feet away from them on the chair, he still occasionally chirped out a reply to something that the two of them said.

A thought occurred to her, and Percy gestured broadly at Shinx and Budew. The two looked up at her, startled.

"Mint Chip can't be the only one with a nickname," she announced. "How about… Noel for Shinx and Max for Budew? Do those names sound good to you?"

They paused for a few seconds, mulling over the nicknames, and then nodded in agreement. Percy then flopped backwards onto the bed; she would have loved to stay up for a bit longer, but the complete darkness outside the window alerted her that it was getting even later. She waved towards her Pokémon as she adjusted her leg again.

"I'll let you guys stay out of your Pokéballs for the night, okay? See you in the morning!"

With that, Max climbed up onto Noel's back, and the Shinx proceeded to jump up onto the chair, surprising Mint Chip. While he looked annoyed at the idea of having to share the chair, he moved over; Mint Chip gave Noel space to curl up, but put plenty of room between them. Sensing Mint Chip's mood, Max plopped down on one of the chair's arms in a half-sitting, half-lying position.

Percy kicked off her other boot as she closed her eyes. Sure, the day hadn't gone perfectly, but her Pokémon seemed to be getting along… Plus, with an early enough start, perhaps she could get over to Oreburgh City while Route 204 was getting cleared up.

As she drifted off, Percy smiled instinctively, plans for the next day forming in the back of her mind.


	6. Chapter Five: Vs Starly!

_Author's Note_: This chapter is actually slightly longer! Slightly. And there's the second battle with Leo, which I actually debated including, but Leo needed to come back… This would have been the first rival battle if I had written a more Pearl-based story like I once thought of doing… Anyway, on a semi-related note, school just started back up for me, so if I'm unable to update every single week like I've been doing, you know why.

**Chapter Five: Vs Starly!**

Percy squeezed her eyes more tightly shut the next morning. Sunlight was streaming in through her window, as she'd forgotten to close the blinds before going to bed… Of course, if she wasn't such a late sleeper, she wouldn't have had to worry about the sun's glare, but Percy didn't want to think about that immediately after waking up.

At least her foot felt somewhat better. That stopped being a comfort, however, when Percy shifted her head and realized that her pillow was damp.

She immediately jolted up and opened her eyes. Mint Chip was already wide awake, in contrast to Noel and Max. The smug look on the Piplup's face told Percy all she needed to know; he'd likely gotten her pillow wet in an attempt to wake her up. It wouldn't have surprised Percy at all if Mint Chip had gone on to practice his Bubble attack on her face if she'd gotten up any later.

"Okay, I get it. You must be bored," Percy muttered.

Noel and Max stirred at the noise, blinking as they woke up. Sighing, Percy recalled her three Pokémon and swung her feet over the side of the bed. Her left foot hurt if she put enough pressure on it, but at least she probably wouldn't be limping so badly that day…

After squeezing back into her boots, Percy strode out of the room. Walking didn't take nearly as much effort as it had the previous night, and she smiled to herself as she went to the Pokémon Center's cafeteria. There wasn't much food available — Percy's Pokétch alerted her that it was already past ten o'clock, after all — but she never ate much for breakfast, anyway. She grabbed a slice of toast from the breakfast line, ignoring the glare of a cafeteria worker for trailing crumbs on the way out.

Percy couldn't resist throwing a glare in the direction of Route 204 when she got outside. Even if she could have gone on to Floaroma Town that day, she wouldn't have, as she was too sore — figuratively and literally — about yesterday's events. Weaving through the crowded-as-usual sidewalks, Percy felt much better when she arrived at Jubilife's east gate.

She'd barely managed to step off the paved road and onto the dirt trail when she was suddenly on the ground again; at least this time she landed in a sitting position instead of on her back. Scowling as her foot throbbed in memory of her last fall, Percy shot a glare up at the person who'd knocked her over. It was Leo — no surprise there, given how quickly he'd likely been running, though of course she couldn't have predicted that he'd be there right at that time…

"What is wrong with you?" Percy demanded as she stood back up. "Ever since we left, you've been running around even faster than usual!"

"Shut up, Percy!" Leo folded his arms, not even bothering to look apologetic. "I'll have you know I got the badge from Oreburgh City already, thanks to me being so fast and all. Oh, _and_ I have another Pokémon."

Leo being in a rush was to be expected, but if he had a badge this early, Percy wondered how much time Leo had even put into getting ready to leave home. They'd only been out for a couple of days, after all… Then again, it was pretty obvious that Leo was under-prepared for travel. His ponytail was still a complete mess, and he didn't look quite well-dressed enough for Sinnoh's typical weather; he'd merely put a longer-sleeved black shirt on under his favorite orange polo, and he hadn't bothered with a scarf or boots.

It would have been amusing to sit there and analyze Leo's lack of preparation aloud to him, but Percy opted against that and addressed another issue.

"Well, you're going to have to learn to be patient like a normal person if you were planning on going to Eterna City for your next badge. Route 204 is blocked off," she replied, smirking. "I've got _two_ more Pokémon, by the way."

Leo's jaw dropped as he processed the information. It was hard to tell what surprised him more — the fact that he'd actually have to do some waiting, or the fact that Percy had one more Pokémon than he did. Eventually, Leo shut his mouth and put his hands on his hips, apparently having come to a conclusion.

"Whatever! Let's just battle!"

"Um… What does that have to do with what I just said?"

Percy raised an eyebrow as Leo ignored her. He'd already grabbed one of his Pokéballs before she had even finished speaking, and he quickly pressed the release button. A Starly materialized next to him, and the Flying-Type flapped his wings eagerly as he looked over at Percy.

Frowning, Percy decided to take the path of least resistance — it was really the only thing that worked with Leo, she'd realized long ago. She idly reached down towards her Pokéballs, but then her frown vanished when her hand stopped at Noel's Heal Ball. At the very least, she had a Pokémon with a Type advantage…

"Come on, Noel!"

Percy released the Shinx, and Leo's eyes widened for a moment. However, he shook his head and got another confident look on his face. Leo seemed to be paying no attention to Starly's rather alarmed look.

"Start off with Charge," Percy ordered. She hadn't done so well in her last battle with Leo, so maybe a little bit more preparation would help…

"You're not going to attack? Whatever! Just use Quick Attack, Starly!"

Noel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her fur stood on end as a few sparks built up around her body. She then opened her eyes again with an eager look on her face, the static buildup giving her more energy.

However, Starly had been darting forward the whole time, and he crashed into her a second later. She tumbled over as Starly hopped back towards Leo, but she easily got back up with a determined look. Percy's grin widened as Noel looked at her, waiting for another command.

"Now use Spark!"

Noel's fur bristled further as she charged towards Starly. When she collided with the bird Pokémon, a shower of electricity exploded from her body, and Starly screeched loudly. When Noel leapt backwards, Starly had practically wilted, and he was panting heavily. Leo actually looked somewhat nervous, but he forced another confident expression when Starly barely managed to get up.

"All right! Keep on using Quick Attack!"

"Tackle, Noel."

Starly staggered around in his attempt to repeat the move; he was too tired to get anywhere close to Noel. The Shinx was easily able to strike him, and Leo's jaw dropped again when Starly didn't get back up.

"Just attacking over and over again should have worked!" Leo cried, glaring as he recalled Starly.

"No, it doesn't work, genius," Percy answered smugly. "Why do you think I used Charge first? And don't tell me you're going to quit…"

"What gave you that idea? Come on, Turtwig!"

Leo impatiently threw out Turtwig's Pokéball, not even bothering to pick it up as Turtwig materialized next to him. Percy sighed; she didn't have anything that was strong against Grass-Types yet… Noel was in pretty good shape, though, so Percy decided to just keep going with her.

"Use Leer and then Tackle," Percy said with a shrug.

"Razor Leaf!"

Noel narrowed her eyes, giving Turtwig a surprisingly harsh glare. When he recoiled, Noel ran towards him; she managed to hit Turtwig fairly hard, since he hadn't been focusing on her. However, Turtwig recovered fairly easily and reluctantly slashed at Noel with the leaves on his head.

The turtle Pokémon shuffled back towards Leo as Noel fell over, crying out in surprise. Although she stood back up, it was with a bit of effort; Noel was clearly starting to get worn out, at least partially thanks to Starly's earlier Quick Attack. Percy nearly recalled Noel, but she might be able to get another attack in… While she hesitated, Leo leapt at the chance to pick another attack.

"Okay, Turtwig, finish with Tackle!"

As in their first fight, Turtwig had donned a look that showed he'd much rather not be battling, but he obediently did the attack anyway. This time, Noel didn't get back up afterwards, and Percy felt her eyebrow twitch. For once, she wished she'd taken Leo's usual approach instead of stopping to think.

Percy grimaced as she withdrew Noel. She hadn't gotten a chance to battle with Max yet, and at least he wouldn't be weak to Turtwig's moves… He wouldn't have an advantage either, though. Reluctantly, Percy pulled Max's Heal Ball off her belt and released him.

Fortunately, Max looked eager to fight when he appeared next to her. The small Pokémon opened up the stems on his head as he grinned. Remembering how she'd found Max the previous day, an idea immediately formed in Percy's head.

"Let's try using a Stun Spore, Max."

"Just keep using Tackle!"

Percy rolled her eyes; Leo seemed content with disregarding her advice and was sticking with his repeated attack plan. Fortunately, Max acted quickly before Turtwig could pull off the attack; yellow spores drifted out of his stems and spread over Turtwig's body. The other Grass-Type stopped in his tracks, stiffening up as the Stun Spore numbed him.

"All right, now let's go with Growth and Absorb!"

Max nodded, closing his eyes as his stems swelled slightly. A yellow-green light then surrounded both him and Turtwig. While the draining attack didn't seem to have much effect on Turtwig at first, he started drooping after a few moments. Given how he was having trouble moving, Turtwig couldn't shake off the Absorb at all, so the effects grew stronger the more Max concentrated.

When Turtwig finally collapsed, Max bounced up and down excitedly. Leo wore a similar expression of shock to the one he'd had when Starly fainted, and it took him a minute to remember to pick up Turtwig's Pokéball. He was grumbling under his breath as he and Percy recalled their Pokémon.

"So? I did much better than last time, huh? And you said you have a badge already!"

"Well, you know what? I'll just get my dad to train me, and then I'll be super-awesome!" Leo countered, folding his arms.

"Yeah, because he totally has time for that between Battle Tower matches," Percy snorted. "Whatever. I'm going to go on over to Oreburgh City myself."

"Hey! I'm coming with you! I want to watch your gym battle."

"You just want something to do while you wait for Route 204 to clear up. Go bother someone else."

Leo cocked his head to the side for a moment, trying to think of an appropriate comeback. Taking advantage of the pause, Percy seized her chance and darted down the dirt trail extending past Jubilife City. By the time Leo started shouting after her, Percy had covered a decent distance, and she hastily took a turn in the path to avoid Leo's line of sight.

Leaning against a tree, Percy stopped to catch her breath; her ankle had started hurting again from attempting to run. She supposed Leo's company would be better than nothing, but she definitely didn't want to have to listen to his chattering while she'd have to concentrate on an important battle… Besides, he always blew off her sarcasm anyway, so while running off on him wasn't exactly the nicest thing to do, Percy was sure Leo would have forgotten all about it by the next time she ran into him.

Or whenever he next ran into her — literally.

Percy paused to scan Route 203 before she started walking. The area was fairly short, despite the fact that the trail seemed to wind around a bit. A small cave was on the horizon, and Percy couldn't help complaining to herself when she recalled her last experience with a cave. She'd never been to Oreburgh City before, and thus was unfamiliar with this route; she crossed her fingers as she started walking, hoping that the cavern up ahead wasn't as risky as the one on the way to Floaroma Town…

A small group of Bidoof trotted through some of the thick grass nearby as Percy wound her way through the route. They looked up her curiously, but otherwise left her alone, so she decided not to try catching any of them. As she went further, the group scrambled away from her. The ground became a bit rockier the closer she got to the cave, which the beaver Pokémon probably didn't find comfortable.

Percy raised an eyebrow when she arrived at the cave's entrance. It was fairly wide, so she didn't doubt she'd fit through it easily — what had caught her attention were some words carved in the rock wall nearby. "Oreburgh Gate" was written in a somewhat blocky but otherwise neat script, and Percy wondered if that was actually the area's official name or not.

Shrugging, Percy entered the so-called gate, and realized it was more like a tunnel than an actual cave. The path looked long and narrow, with no real turns or many chambers off to the sides. That made traversing it quite easy, at least; it would take a little while, but at least it was just a straight path.

She couldn't help looking down at the ground with venom every time she heard anything that remotely sounded like a rock clattering to the ground, however.

When she saw a bit of light indicating the tunnel's exit, Percy grinned and unconsciously sped up. She stopped short when she exited, scratching her head as she looked around.

The tunnel apparently exited straight into Oreburgh City instead of gradually leading into another part of Route 203 like she'd been expecting. Large apartment buildings towered over the dry, rocky ground. Although there were paved sidewalks, most of the ground looked rather barren. Round vents peppered the landscape, with steam and black smoke spontaneously bursting out of them every so often; consequently, there was a bit of a haze. More mountains were also visible in the distance.

It was certainly bigger than Twinleaf Town, at least — not that that really took much — but Percy counted herself lucky she didn't have asthma or any other respiratory issues. The smog was barely noticeable, but the fact that Oreburgh was essentially surrounded by mountains meant that the smog likely lingered for long periods of time… It certainly would have been a big deal if she had the slightest health issue.

Percy noted with a bit of amusement that "Oreburgh Gate" was also scrawled near the side of the tunnel that she'd just exited. While it was in a similar blocky script she'd seen earlier, it was carved in a somewhat clumsier manner, as if whoever had written it had either been younger or simply less experienced with carving at the time.

Finding out who had written on the tunnel entrances was an idea that Percy quickly shoved aside, however. For the moment, she needed to find the Pokémon Center; she hadn't stopped to heal anywhere after her battle with Leo, after all.

While it would have to wait a few minutes, exploring the city a bit more was definitely the next item on Percy's agenda. She used that thought to motivate herself into walking more quickly, and a grin spread over her face as she wove through the narrow streets…


	7. Chapter Six: Vs Cranidos!

_Author's Note_: Finally, a gym battle… It's about time, huh? Anyway, I like writing Roark as kind of awkward, and you could kind of get that out of some of his Battleground dialogue… I have no idea how he's characterized in the anime, so sorry to any fans of the anime if he's wildly different there (as the anime has a tendency to do that).

**Chapter Six: Vs Cranidos!**

Percy stretched as she sat down in one of the many comfortable chairs in the Pokémon Center's lobby. Fortunately, it hadn't taken her too long to find, and she'd just handed all of her Pokémon over to the nurse. She propped her foot up on the stool on front of her as she shuffled through a few magazines on the table next to her.

There were a good deal of magazines featuring interviews with Johto Gym Leaders, coupons for the Goldenrod Department Store, and ads for Johto's most interesting landmarks. Percy frowned; for whatever reason, Sinnoh imported a lot of Johto-relevant materials, to the point where most people in Sinnoh could tell you almost as much about Johto as they could about their home country. Pokémon Centers, necessary as they were, tended to be the prime offenders of this quirk.

As Percy idly flipped through a magazine featuring a report on Gym Leader Jasmine's recent interest in Super Contests, the Pokémon Center's door swung open again. Several workers in hardhats and other protective gear had just entered, and they wiped the dark dust off their hands and faces as they handed their Pokéballs to one of the center's workers. Then, they proceeded to walk a few feet away from the counter, still sticking in their group.

"So, when's the next time we're going to get an inspection from Roark?" one of the men asked, stifling a yawn.

"He's down in the mine right now, you genius. Didn't you see him on the way out?" the one woman replied dryly.

"Huh? Are you serious?"

"You would have noticed had you not decided to try to catch that Zubat—"

"Come on, Miriam," another worker interjected. "I thought he was supposed to be in the gym all day, too. Though I at least saw him…"

Percy grinned as she tossed the magazine back onto the table. The mine would definitely have to be her next stop after she got her Pokémon back, provided it didn't take too long to find for her to find the mine in the first place.

Whether or not they would actually let her in was another question altogether, but Percy decided to ignore that issue as she continued to listen to the miners chattering away about the inspection schedule.

* * *

As large as Oreburgh City was, it wasn't all that difficult to find the mines. Percy spent a few minutes wandering around aimlessly until she noticed the group of workers she'd seen in the Pokémon Center. She then trailed after them, figuring they were going back to work; she grinned when she realized she was right.

A trail not far from the Pokémon Center wound between a few high hills. Conveyor belts carrying coal scraps lined both sides of the path, emptying into a large building. Percy had to cover her mouth and nose as she continued following the miners; she coal dust in the air got heavier and heavier the further they went.

There was a small rest house in front on a huge tunnel entrance, and the miners stopped in there to get some gear before heading inside. They left the door wide open after they left, and Percy poked her head inside. A larger worker was going through boxes of ventilation masks, hard hats, and other gear, and he didn't seem to be paying Percy any attention.

"Hey, is it okay if I go down in the mine?" she called.

"What are you talking about? 'Course it is! Get in gear and get down there!"

He still hadn't looked up yet, Percy noticed with a bit of confusion. Maybe he assumed she was a worker? Nevertheless, she took that as permission, and quickly grabbed a hard hat and a mask before the man had a chance to actually look at her.

She stepped back outside as she strapped on the equipment, and then looked at the mine entrance. It was surprisingly unmanned; that seemed like something that would have to change at the next safety inspection, unless visitors really were allowed… Shrugging, Percy stepped through the wide tunnel entrance anyway.

Dodging a few stalagmites, Percy carefully walked down the sloped path. She didn't need any more injuries, nor did she want to cause any problems for the workers… Still, Percy couldn't help looking around with a bit of interest.

The conveyor belts branched off in several directions, and workers were loading piles of coal onto the belts. Many of the workers had released their Pokémon — mainly Machop, though Percy noticed a pair of Riolu as well — to help with the loading, while other miners were drilling into the cave walls or floors. Large piles of exposed coal dotted the mine's floor as well.

Few of the miners paid much attention to Percy. While it was understandable, given how they were in the middle of working, it made her wonder anyway if it really all right after all for trainers to come in for visits. Before she could think much more about it, however, one of the miners in particular caught her attention.

He was dressed much more lightly than the others, with his hard hat and a pair of boots being the only things that could have been classified as protective. A Geodude was floating nearby him, grabbing various-sized lumps of coal and handing them to him. After a few minutes, he smiled and nodded, recalled his Pokémon, and turned away from the conveyor belt he'd been loading with the coal. Then, he seemed to realize that Percy had been watching him, and he scratched the back of his neck as he looked up with a confused expression.

"Are you a trainer? I guess, ah, I guess you'd be looking for me, then…"

"If you're the gym leader, then yeah, I'm looking for you," Percy replied, quirking an eyebrow.

"Oh. Sorry." His face turned a shade of red that matched his hair quite well. "I'm the gym leader… I'm Roark; nice to meet you."

"Perseph — no, you can call me Percy."

Roark nervously extended his hand, his white gloves made the coal dust all the more noticeable, and Percy reluctantly shook it. She grimaced slightly; she'd almost mentioned her full name, but at least she'd stopped herself. Roark gave her a somewhat awkward smile as he shifted his weight between his feet for a few seconds.

"Ah, well, you can train in here… if you want to, that is… I guess I'll be seeing you at the gym later?"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, of course, but you don't have to sound like you're apologizing so much."

"Sorry—" Roark cut himself off when he realized what he'd said, and then shook his head and grinned. "See you later."

With that, he walked away, dodging the coal mounds, conveyor belts, and stalagmites without even having to look at them. Percy sighed as she watched Roark leave; for some reason, it was a bit odd to think of him as a Gym Leader…

Pushing that out of her mind, however, Percy grinned as she saw a few of the miners pause at their conveyor belts. After they'd put down their tools and gathered in a small group, nodding to a few other workers who took their places, Percy darted up to them.

"Hey! You guys want to battle?"

* * *

Percy sighed in relief as she walked out of the Pokémon Center later. She'd ended up battling almost every one of the miners between their rotating break times, and Mint Chip, Noel, and Max had gotten nearly equal amounts of practice; naturally, however, Mint Chip had insisted on getting in slightly more battles. Now, she was quite eager to get started with her first gym match.

Unfortunately, however, Percy's sense of direction wasn't the best ever; being used to Twinleaf Town, coupled with Oreburgh being massive by comparison, led to quite a bit of frustration. She finally found herself in front of a large, important-looking, whitewashed building; a sign in front of it labeled it as the Oreburgh Mining Museum. She'd seen quite enough coal while being in the mine herself, but given that Roark worked in the mines, perhaps someone in the museum could give her directions…

She pushed open the glass doors, revealing a surprisingly crowded lobby. Fortunately, though, Percy didn't have to think too hard about whom to ask for directions. A few feet away from the entrance, a short brown-haired girl bad sat down on one of the benches was showing off a badge to a few of her friends. The girl's Buizel had curled up in her lap as she started talking.

"Yeah, I got it yesterday, actually! It was a bit harder than I expected, but Momo came through for me. He was great!"

"Hey, uh…" Percy cut in, and the small group collectively looked over at her. "Where _is_ the gym, anyway?"

"Oh, it's about, uh…" the girl paused for a moment. "If you take a left from the Pokémon Center and then go straight, it'll take you just about ten minutes to get there. Now, as I was saying…"

She promptly turned back to her friends, but the directions had been good enough. As Percy pushed the museum's doors back open, her grin returned to her face. Maybe she'd come back and look around later, but for now, the gym was definitely her top priority…

Upon passing the Pokémon Center again, Percy took the instructed left turn and sped up her pace. A large building quickly dominated her line of vision; while normally it would have seemed hard to miss, it was the same plain concrete as the rest of Oreburgh's buildings. Getting closer, Percy realized there was indeed a (rather small) sign near the door marking it was the gym.

"Now if I can just pay more attention, finding my next gym should be easy," Percy grumbled, a hint of her usual sarcasm returning to her voice. "As long as the next one doesn't look like every other building in the city."

She had to lean into the heavy stone door in order to push it open. It scraped against the floor inside, echoing as Percy stepped in. Fortunately, it was somewhat easier to close, and Percy took a good look around as she closed the door. The interior was almost entirely stone as well, though there were staircases leading up to a platform in the back that were all made of wood for some reason. Shrugging, Percy walked forward, listening to the echoing of her footsteps.

Roark was sitting cross-legged on the platform, and he stood up nervously when he noticed her. His hand instinctively strayed towards the Pokéballs on his belt as he started speaking.

"You're, ah, Percy, right?" He waited for her to nod before he went on. "Have you ever had a gym battle before?"

"No. That doesn't mean you have to go easy on me, though," Percy replied, grinning as she folded her arms.

"I just meant that, well, I haven't been doing this too long, either… I guess we're both new to this."

"Let's just get started, then," Percy grinned.

Nodding, Roark quietly the Geodude Percy had seen him with earlier. Percy didn't even have to hesitate before releasing Mint Chip; the Piplup looked just as smug as she expected he would upon seeing the Rock-Type. Roark winced but straightened back up quickly enough.

"Rock Throw, Geodude," he called.

"Use Bubble!" Percy countered.

Geodude effortlessly formed a small boulder and hurled it at Mint Chip with surprising speed. While he attempted to dodge, he didn't do so in time. The rock collided with Mint Chip's side, and he chirped in surprised as he was thrown over. He got back up easily, and a glare formed on his face as he retaliated with the ordered Bubble.

Mint Chip had reacted quickly, and Geodude didn't have time to dodge the barrage of bubbles at all. He was hit dead-on, and fell to the stone floor of the gym with a clatter. While he managed to recover, Mint Chip immediately used another Bubble without waiting for an order.

Geodude was now panting heavily, and he levitated much more closely to the floor than he had before. Roark looked a bit nervous, but Mint Chip was looking more confident than ever.

"Try Rock Throw again!"

"One more Bubble should finish it," Percy replied with a grin.

As usual, Mint Chip required little prompting; he had started launching the attack just as Percy finished speaking. The attack very easily hit Geodude, and he crashed to the floor again, this time with his eyes closed. A frown formed on Roark's face as he withdrew Geodude, but he gave a small smile as he picked his next Pokémon.

"I'll go with Onix."

He released the rock snake, and Onix absolutely towered over Mint Chip, even with most of his lower half coiled on the floor. Still, Onix was just a bigger pile of rocks; how much harder could he be to take down? Percy smirked as she looked back down at Mint Chip.

"Let's pull a Leo here. Just keep using Bubble!"

"Set up a Stealth Rock, Onix!"

Mint Chip eagerly shot out another spray of bubbles. While Onix attempted to swing out of the way, most of the bubbles hit the side of his head, despite having dodged a couple of them. Onix winced, but shook the remaining few bubbles off of his face.

The giant Rock-Type then slammed his tail into the floor. A few sharp rocks flew up into the air, hurtling towards Mint Chip; however, they stopped just short of hitting him, and instead formed a circle around his feet. Mint Chip cocked his head to the side as he looked down at the stones, but then shrugged and proceeded to launch another Bubble at Onix.

As he prepared the attack, Mint Chip jumped forward to get closer to his opponent. The stones from Onix's Stealth Rock moved along with him, however, and jabbed into his feet. Squeaking, Mint Chip crashed back down to the floor, causing his Bubble attack to go flying off to the side. Giving the rocks a glare, Piplup tried again and managed to hit Onix dead-on, but not without a bit of effort.

Roark was looking a bit more confident now. "All right, let's go with Tackle!"

Onix slammed forward, trying to crash into Mint Chip. His length gave the Piplup ample time to dodge, though once again the Stealth Rock moved along with him. Although Mint Chip managed to avoid the Tackle, he got a few scrapes from the previous move. Fortunately, he managed to get in another Bubble in the time it took Onix to get back up, though Mint Chip was starting to look a bit worse for the wear.

Percy scowled, folding her arms as she watched Mint Chip fire off yet another Bubble that hit Onix quite squarely. The Rock-Type proceeded to try another Tackle, and Mint Chip insisted on trying to dodge again. He could either get hit by the Tackle or dodge and get hurt anyway… That had obviously been the point of Roark setting up the Stealth Rock; if Mint Chip _didn't_ try to get out of the way, it would be easy for Onix to aim for him.

There was suddenly an odd glint in Mint Chip's eyes, and, despite being even more scratched up now, the next Bubble attack he used seemed to be stronger than before. A much larger amount of bubbles shot out of his beak, and although Onix was already starting to lift himself out of the way, almost all of the bubbles hit him.

Roaring, Onix instinctively slammed down for another Tackle. Mint Chip didn't have time to attempt to dodge, and the side of Onix's head swept into him. He was sent flying, crashing into the floor near Percy's feet, and he rolled over with his eyes closed; Mint Chip had at least managed a slight smile before fainting, however, clearly pleased that Onix looked nearly unconscious as well.

Sighing, Percy recalled him; Mint Chip had done well, but she'd been hoping he could knock out Onix before going down… However, while she knew Noel would be pretty bad off against Onix, she did have one Pokémon left that would be at an advantage… She perked back up as she sent out Max. The Budew looked just as eager as Mint Chip had; Percy had noticed while fighting the miners that, quite contrarily to what she would have expected, Max really seemed to enjoy fighting.

"All right, Max! That thing's just about to faint, so finish him off with Absorb."

Max's stems were surrounded by the typical, pale green light, and the aura spread over to Onix. The already-tired Pokémon started to pant, and fully collapsed a few seconds later. Roark chewed his lower lip for a second as he recalled Onix, but he then pulled out another Pokéball.

"I can still do this; I still have one left," he muttered, seeming to be talking more to himself than to Percy. His confidence came back a second later as he added, "Come on, Cranidos!"

A small dinosaur-like Pokémon materialized next to Roark. The Cranidos had to lean forward slightly to balance himself, thanks to his typically over-sized head; while that caused him to look a bit comical, Percy decided not to underestimate this one.

"Give him a Stun Spore, Max!"

"Quick, use Zen Headbutt," Roark countered.

Cranidos lowered his head further as he darted towards Max. Just in time, however, the yellow spores floated out of Max's stems and spread over Cranidos. He shook slightly as the powder started to numb him, and he stopped abruptly as his legs tensed up; a few steps further, and he would have been able to hit Max.

"Now use Absorb again," Percy called, grinning.

Max nodded, once again causing his stems to glow. The draining move left Cranidos with even less energy; after Max finished that attack, Cranidos was practically drooping. He still had some energy left, indicated by the rather determined look on his face.

Surprisingly, Cranidos managed to stagger forward, hitting Max with the Zen Headbutt he'd intended to use earlier. Max tumbled over, and while he got back up, he was breathing heavily. Cranidos was still affected by Stun Spore, so hopefully Max had a chance…

"Use Growth and _then_ Absorb!"

Nodding, Max panted as he forced his stems to swell up slightly. They began glowing again, a bit more brightly than earlier, and Cranidos's energy drained more quickly than before.

Max's bruises healed up quite quickly, and he grinned, bouncing around as he recovered. He eagerly used Absorb again, and Cranidos finally crashed to the floor after several seconds. Both Percy and Roark watched Cranidos for a few moments, and when he didn't get up, Percy cheered instinctively. She then abruptly put her hands in her pockets when she realized Roark was giving her an odd look.

"Never mind that, okay?" Percy mumbled as she got Max back in his Heal Ball.

"O-Okay?" Roark rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he withdrew his Pokémon as well. Sighing, he proceeded to reach into one of his numerous pants pockets. "Anyway… Here you go. Here's a Coal Badge."

Percy perked back up as Roark handed her the round, red-and-silver badge, admiring it for a moment before she put it into a pocket in her bag. Abruptly, she grabbed Roark's hand and shook it a bit too hard before she turned around to leave, causing him to blush again slightly.

"Thanks! I really enjoyed that. I guess it was a good first gym battle, huh?"

"Y-you're welcome! And yeah… I guess it was."

Percy waved before slowly shoving open the heavy door. As she stepped outside, her grin widened. Sure, she still had seven badges to go before she could really be considered impressive, but she was off to a good start…

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: Yes, I know Stealth Rock doesn't work like that in-game. I thought it would be a bit more interesting to change it up a bit; it's similar enough to how it really works, and I'm sure everyone wishes that Stealth Rock worked differently anyway… Oh, and Mint Chip activated Torrent there on his last Bubble attack, by the way.


	8. Chapter Seven: Vs Glameow!

_Author's Note_: And now, we finally have an appearance from Team Galactic! I was actually considering cutting them out, but then decided against it, as this is necessary setup for Floaroma Town… Plus, I wanted to be able to include Orion again. Not to mention Rowan's awesome little rant gets me every time, as does Looker's inability to do anything useful for the vast majority of the game.

**Chapter Seven: Vs Glameow!**

Percy stretched and whistled to herself as she wove through the tunnel next to Oreburgh City — Oreburgh Gate, she mentally corrected herself. She'd immediately gone to the Pokémon Center after her battle with Roark, and then had decided to head on back to Jubilife City. While it wasn't too late in the day yet, Percy hoped that Route 204 had been cleared already… Thus, she'd wanted to get back and check as soon as she could.

Upon stepping back out onto Route 203, Percy instinctively took a few deep breaths of air. She'd gotten so used to the coal haze in Oreburgh City that the cleaner air was more than a bit refreshing.

It was with a bit of reluctance that she walked back towards Jubilife City. Not that it was unpleasant, but Percy had spent enough time there over the past couple of days. She decided she'd go right on to Route 204 to see if the cave was safe yet. It would at least give her a good idea of when to come back if it _wasn't_ cleared.

Percy wound through the crammed sidewalks, whistling as she folded her hands behind her back. She stopped abruptly when she saw a very familiar-looking man in a trench coat in the crowd nearby… Frowning, Percy tried to remember where she'd seen him before.

She then groaned as she recalled bumping into the man with Orion. Before she could just keep on walking, Looker had already noticed her and was rapidly approaching her. Unfortunately, it was way too late to try to ignore him.

"Oh, it is you! The little girl with the Pokédex," Looker announced, his loudness drawing a couple of stares.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "I don't look that little, do I? I'm fifteen, just so you know…"

Looker continued on as if he hadn't heard her. "My investigations here, they are wrapping up! I have not seen anything suspicious, so I must leave. Always, however, you should watch out for dangerous things!"

He strode past Percy rather dramatically, going the way she'd just come from. Raising her other eyebrow, Percy wondered if she ought to tell him she hadn't seen anything remotely suspicious over in Oreburgh City… She shook her head a few seconds later, however, somehow doubting that Looker would be able to find anything "suspicious" even if it was literally right in front of him.

Shrugging, Percy continued weaving through the large groups of people. Eventually, she neared the northern edge of Jubilife City, and she grinned as she unconsciously sped up. She slowed back down, though, upon hearing a few more familiar voices…

"Come along, Orion. Let's just leave them to whatever insignificant thing they think they're accomplishing."

"Now, wait a minute! We need that!"

Percy snorted; talk about coincidences… A few feet ahead of her, Professor Rowan and Orion were arguing with two people with identical blue bowl-cuts and very bizarre-looking uniforms. Or rather, it seemed Rowan was yelling at them, while Orion was merely wearing a deadpan look on his face in the background.

Currently, the female in the group was gesturing towards Rowan's briefcase, and the male appeared to be sulking next to her. Percy was unsure whether to be more confused that anyone could be so dead-set on getting a briefcase with unknown contents, the fact that Looker had somehow managed to miss this, or the fact that both Rowan and Orion had left Sandgem's lab… She strode over to them, wondering how in the world nobody _else_ found this remotely suspicious either.

"Hey, uh… what's going on here?" she asked.

"Oh, hello, Persephone," Rowan replied casually. A look of annoyance spread over his face as he gestured towards the pair he'd been speaking with. "These… _people_ seem to want some of my research data for some reason."

"And what exactly is that tone of voice supposed to mean?" the male demanded.

Tuning him out, Rowan continued speaking to Percy. "Oh, by the way… I believe I told you I wanted to hear from you every once in a while…"

"You definitely did," Orion added flatly, folding his arms.

"Oh, uh… Sorry. I've been a _bit_ busy lately." Percy had legitimately forgotten, but she tried to avoid letting it show; instead, she attempted to divert the subject, pulling her Coal Badge. "Look! I got a badge from the Oreburgh gym earlier. Mint Chip — Piplup — did pretty well in that battle."

"Ah, that _is_ impressive. Congratulations," Rowan said appraisingly. "Have you caught any other Pokémon yet?"

"Yeah, I have two more, actually… Hey, I'm pretty surprised both of you are out here, by the way." Percy couldn't help letting a bit of skepticism into her voice. "I mean, I guess it's good, because I ran into you, but…"

"We didn't leave the lab abandoned, if that's what you mean," Orion snorted. "My dad works there too, so the professor left him in charge so he could come up here and see how my fieldwork was going."

"Oh, that makes more sense. Okay."

"_Hey_!" the female shrieked, glaring. "Listen! Pay attention and hand over your research already!"

Percy had nearly forgotten that the two strangers were over there; perhaps she'd purposely blocked them out, like Rowan had. After a brief pause, the professor cleared his throat and gave the pair an icy look before launching into a slight rant.

"Have you not realized I have no need to continue speaking with you?" he snapped. "Apart from learning to read the atmosphere in the area, you also need to learn to not raise your voice and interrupt someone else's conversation! And why do your outfits look like something out of a B-grade 1980s sci-fi movie?"

All of it was true — especially the sci-fi movie remark — but Percy was unsure of whether to burst into laughter or not. While she and Leo had initially been terrified of Rowan, she hadn't quite expected him to be that harsh. On the other hand, she had to wonder why Rowan chose to top off his list of complaint with their outfits, of all the pointless details… Percy glanced over at Orion to see his reaction, and the boy looked completely unbothered by the outburst.

"Professor Rowan really hates sci-fi movies," Orion explained, shrugging.

"If that's all you're going to comment on, I'm wondering what your standard is for his lectures," Percy answered dryly.

Rowan sighed, resting his head in his hand for a moment. "Does that matter at the moment? Regardless, I'm getting quite tired of these two. Orion, Persephone, please deal with them; I'd like to see how Persephone's Pokémon are doing."

"That's fine with me." Percy smirked.

Orion rolled his eyes but nodded anyway, likely only to avoid having the professor's wrath shifted to him. Meanwhile, the woman mirrored Orion's expression as she reached into a pocket in her skirt and pulled out a Pokéball.

"Now you're assuming that we're going to take it easy on a couple of kids," she snorted. "Though I suppose if you're expecting Team Galactic to play along with something this stupid, then it means you'll hand over that briefcase if we win…"

"This is such a waste of time," the male muttered.

Despite the complaint, however, both of them — Team Galactic members, the woman had said, whatever that was — pressed the release buttons on their Pokéballs. A Glameow appeared next to the woman, while a Stunky materialized next to the man.

Ignoring Orion for a moment, Percy quickly reached for Noel's Pokéball. She hadn't used the Shinx in her battle with Roark, after all; even though Noel didn't have an advantage over Glameow or Stunky, she could still use a battle… As Noel materialized next to her, Percy looked over at Orion. Admittedly, she was a bit taken aback at the sour look on the boy's face as he released his Monferno.

"What?" she queried.

"I could do this on my own, you know," Orion responded. "So just let me deal with this and don't get in my way."

"Oh, you're back to being a jerk, I see," Percy answered wryly. "Well, if you want to just treat this like an overblown single battle, then I _won't_ help you."

"Fine! Monferno, use—"

Orion cut himself off with a horrified expression. Apparently, while the two of them had been bickering, both of the Team Galactic members had taken the time to order their Pokémon to attack Monferno.

They'd both used Scratch, and Glameow jumped back as Stunky dove forward. Monferno winced, skidding backwards slightly from the two successive attacks. However, it didn't seem as if he'd been hurt _too_ badly, as he managed to glare quite impressively at his two opponents.

"Are you sure you want to do this by yourself?"

Orion muttered something quite inaudible, but he nodded reluctantly. Percy put a hand on her hip as Noel looked up at her expectantly.

"All right, just listen to me, then. Distract them while Noel uses Charge."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it."

Orion mumbled again for a moment as static started to build up in Noel's fur. He then gestured towards Monferno reluctantly.

"Use Flame Wheel," he ordered. "And aim for Glameow."

Nodding, Monferno darted forward as the flame on the end of his tail flared up. Embers surrounded Monferno's body as he crashed into Glameow, and the Normal-Type yowled as she was flung over into Stunky. Both Pokémon tumbled to the ground as Monferno leapt back to Orion.

Stunky managed to get back to his feet fairly easily, as he hadn't been directly attacked. Glameow, on the other hand, struggled to stand up. A few burn marks had appeared on her body, in contrast to just a few light bruises on Stunky.

"All right, Noel, now use Spark to finish off Glameow," Percy called.

Noel eagerly charged towards Glameow as the electricity crackled around her fur. Glameow barely managed a stunned mew as she collapsed into a heap, leaving Stunky by himself. The female Galactic member's eyes widened as the male shot her a glare.

"You are so useless!" he groaned. "I told you this was a waste of time—"

"Whatever! Yours is still up. You can do something!" his partner replied disdainfully.

"Just use Fury Swipes… or something," he grumbled.

Stunky looked around in confusion for a few seconds, trying to decide whether to attack Noel or Monferno. Abruptly, he slashed forward at Monferno and then immediately turned to Noel; he then flipped back and forth between the two of them several times. As Stunky jumped away, Noel and Monferno both staggered backwards a bit, covered in scratches.

"Hey, why don't _you_ distract them for _me_?" Orion snapped. "Monferno already got attacked earlier!"

"Whatever! There's only one left, so we can both attack the same one again," Percy shot back. "Noel, use Spark again!"

Orion sighed in frustration. "All right, use Mach Punch!"

Despite the fact that he was starting to get worn out, Monferno managed to run forward and swing his fist toward Stunky easily enough. The skunk Pokémon skidded backwards, and before he had the chance to recover, Noel crashed into him with Spark. The two successive attacks left Stunky unconscious, and he landed on the ground next to Glameow.

"See?" The male Galactic member glared at his partner again. "This was such a waste of time!"

As they recalled their Pokémon, the woman folded her arms. "Well, it's not like we still couldn't take it anyway—"

"Not without our Pokémon! What if they attack _us_? Besides, we were _supposed_ to be going somewhere and just stopped here on the way, remember?"

"Well, if you insist on playing fair…" The woman snorted. "All right, we're leaving. But don't get the wrong idea! It's not really because you just beat us…"

With that, the two darted through a passing crowd, getting a good deal of complaints, and had vanished a few minutes later. Sighing, Percy recalled Noel as Orion withdrew Monferno, and she looked back over at Rowan. Before she could say anything, however, Orion started snapping at her again.

"You did _not_ help me at all. How was that not — what was it — oh, an 'overblown single battle'?"

"Well, it would have taken you longer without me," Percy retorted.

"It would not have!"

"Orion…" Rowan said warningly. "Anyway, Persephone, you did well enough, although I would have liked to see you use Piplup."

"Oh. Sorry," she grumbled. "So what did they even want?"

Rowan pinched the bridge of his nose before speaking. "Apparently, their group is researching alternative energy for… some reason or another that they didn't make clear. They seemed to be under the impression that they could harness the energy Pokémon give off at evolution, and as evolution is one of the main focuses of my research…"

"Professor," Orion cut in, "we should get back to the lab for a little while. What if they show up there?"

Rowan nodded. "That's a good idea, Orion. Well, it was good to meet up with you, Persephone. Please remember to keep in contact from now on."

"Yes, sir."

With that, Rowan waved idly to her as he and Orion turned around to walk away. Orion, on the other hand, merely shot her another glare. After a few moments, they blended into the rest of the crowded street, and Percy shook her head as she watched them disappear.

Maybe it would be easier if she didn't try to actually understand them.

Percy shrugged to herself as she continued walking towards Route 204 like she'd wanted to do. The large iron gate marked the abrupt edge of Jubilife City, and the area was nearly deserted as usual.

That likely meant that either the cave was still blocked, or that it had just recently been cleared. Percy hoped towards the latter.

The grass rustled in the wind as Percy walked towards the cave, and as she absently looked around, she thought she recognized the tree where she'd first seen Max. The scenery was pretty similar, though, so it was hard to be sure.

Percy sighed gustily when she reached the cave, reluctantly taking the first few steps inside. There was a very small amount of pain in her ankle all of a sudden, as if to remind her of her last attempt in the area. She tried to ignore that feeling and kept walking.

When she reached the fork in the path, Percy couldn't help grinning. There were still a few rocks lying on the ground, but for the most part, the path was clear. The nurse from Jubilife's Pokémon Center must have really been telling the truth about getting the area cleared up as soon as possible.

Percy paused for a moment after carefully weaving around the few boulders. She realized she was pretty lucky to have run into Rowan and Orion right when Rowan wanted to speak with her…

"Mom probably wants to hear from me soon, too," she mused to herself.

…It would likely be better to wait until she got to Floaroma Town instead of turning back to Jubilife City, though. The more distance between her and Stella, the better, given how Percy still hadn't mentioned what had happened at Lake Verity. Stella would be far less likely to demand that she come home if she was farther away.

With that thought in mind, Percy sped up slightly, grin widening as she saw a faint light up ahead. Even without the phone call motivation, she was quite eager to visit Floaroma Town, and the faster she got there, the better.

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: I'm pretty sure that both of those Galactic grunts are male in-game, but again, I just felt like changing things up a bit. Besides, given how two of my main characters are male, I feel like the fic could use all the extra female characters it can get. Also, any advice on writing double battles would be greatly appreciated…


	9. Chapter Eight: Vs Pachirisu!

_Author's Note_: Oh, hey, look, someone evolves in this chapter. It may seem a little early, but Noel does have the lowest set evolution level of Percy's Pokémon… Also, a lot of this chapter is fun side stuff, because I've always been fond of Floaroma Town for some reason. We do get back to Team Galactic at the end, though.

**Chapter Eight: Vs Pachirisu!**

Percy took a deep breath as she stepped out into fresh air. Turning around, she saw the first half of Route 204 sprawling under the steep hill that the cave formed. Then, in front of her, there was an abrupt expanse of trees, contrasting oddly with the rest of the route.

Percy blinked for a moment, and then she shrugged. As she walked forward, she remembered vaguely that the line of trees formed the edge of Floaroma Town. It had been quite some time since her last — and until then, only — visit. Even if she hadn't forgotten, the more natural border would have struck her as odd anyway, given how she'd gotten so used to Jubilife City lately.

After she got pretty close to the town, Percy felt someone tugging at her elbow. Looking down with a raised eyebrow, she saw a short, brown-haired girl standing near her.

"Are you going to Floaroma Town?" the girl asked nervously.

Where else would she be going? Nevertheless, Percy refrained from saying that aloud and merely nodded in response.

"There were some weird people who just showed up there. You better be sure you're good," she continued.

"Um… Good at _what_?"

"Good at battling," the girl elaborated. "They won't take your Pokémon away if you're good."

"You're sure about that?"

It sounded like a very disproportionate rumor. Even if Floaroma Town didn't seem like the type of place to attract thieves, the kid was probably mistaken. She sounded a bit like she was just repeating something that someone had made up. Either way, though, she couldn't be too sure…

The girl nodded. "Yep. My friend said so. She said some guys in space outfits just showed up and wanted some Pokémon for something."

Yeah, it definitely was a bad rumor, Percy mused. She paused for a moment, however; space outfits? Those Team Galactic members did look something like that… She _had_ defeated them, so she doubted she'd have too much trouble with any of their other teammates; not to mention she was still feeling good about having defeated Roark.

"Well, I think I'll be fine." Percy pulled her Coal Badge out of her bag and showed it to the girl. "I mean, look, I do have a badge and all." Putting the badge away, she took a few more steps. "So, thanks, but—"

"Um, could you help me, then?" the girl interrupted.

"What?" Percy repeated.

"I'm not very good at battling… I want to make sure I'm better just in case I run into those people," she explained. "Oh, my name's Liz, by the way. What's yours?"

"Percy," she answered idly. "And all right, as long as it's a quick one, I guess…"

"Thanks so much!" Liz smiled as she reached for her single Pokéball. "Come on, Pachirisu!"

Percy waited for a moment before picking her Pokémon. She'd just used Noel in her last battle, but the Shinx had done pretty well… After shrugging to herself, Percy grabbed Noel's Heal Ball and released her. Noel looked curiously over at Pachirisu before looking back to Percy for orders.

"Um… How about… use Quick Attack, Pachirisu!"

"Counter it with Leer and Bite, Noel," Percy replied.

Pachirisu nodded somewhat anxiously, but she still darted towards Noel. Building up speed, she crashed into Noel before she had time to dodge. As Noel stumbled backwards, Pachirisu started to look a bit more confident.

Fortunately, Noel recovered quickly enough, and she shot the other Electric-Type a surprisingly fierce look. Pachirisu proceeded to wilt, and Noel took the chance to run towards her. She then clamped down onto Pachirisu's arm, swinging her to the side with a bit of effort.

Pachirisu managed to get back up, but she was staggering around a little. Liz looked nervous again, biting her lip as she tried to think of a new command.

"Okay… use Spark instead!"

Static built up in Pachirisu's fur as she ran towards Noel, though the squirrel Pokémon was panting. Despite Pachirisu's slower pace, Noel didn't manage to dodge in time. Noel stumbled backwards, but shook herself off easily; the Spark likely wouldn't have done much damage even if Pachirisu hadn't been tired.

"Noel, use Tackle," Percy called, hoping it would finish off Pachirisu.

Noel nodded, running forward eagerly, and she effortlessly crashed into Pachirisu. Tumbling backwards, Pachirisu collapsed into a heap. After a few moments, Liz sighed and pulled out her Pokéball, recalling her Pokémon.

"Well, I guess now I know I need to train some more…" Liz trailed off, but tried to look cheerful anyway. "That was good practice!"

"Uh, no problem."

Liz waved, walking towards Floaroma Town's tree border. Taking out her Heal Ball, Percy looked back down at Noel after Liz left. She then quirked an eyebrow; Noel was breathing heavily despite the fact that she hadn't taken much damage.

"Noel? What—"

A flash of light surrounded Noel, and it faded after a few seconds. She was now slightly taller and had a thicker mane; Noel experimentally shuffled around, trying to get used to her new form.

"Luxio!" she cried.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that… Pretty awesome, though. Let's get going!"

Percy grinned as she withdrew Noel. After a short jog, the messy dirt trail ahead of her faded into a neater pathway. Stepping between a gap in the trees, Percy paused to look around. She couldn't remember where Floaroma Town's Pokémon Center was, and it would probably be a good idea to drop off Noel before going anywhere else, just to be safe…

It took a few minutes, but Percy finally noticed the Pokémon Center in the distance. When she arrived, the lobby was surprisingly crowded, and Percy sighed as she got into the long line. After finally dropping off Noel and leaving her name with the nurse, Percy scanned the lobby. There were a few phone booths off to one side, so she decided to go ahead and call her mother before she forgot.

Unsurprisingly, Stella answered the phone promptly. What did surprise Percy, however, was that when Stella's face appeared on the screen, she looked absolutely furious. The fact that her reddened face complimented her green hair quite well would have been comical if it wasn't so startling to see Stella that angry.

"Uh, hi, Mom. What's wrong?" Percy asked apprehensively.

"Percy, what exactly is this?" Stella demanded.

She lifted up a tattered, bloody sleeve with one hand, and she pointed at it with the other. Percy blanched; she hadn't emptied out her trashcan before leaving home, and Stella had a tendency of obsessively cleaning up Percy's bedroom when she wasn't around to do it herself. The shirt she'd worn to Lake Verity naturally still would have been in there… How could she have forgotten about that?

"Well, you see, Mom," Percy started, chuckling. "You know how Leo decided it was an awesome idea to go to Lake Verity when we saw that news report a few days ago? As it happens, we very 'conveniently' ran into that Gyarados, and… you can fill in the rest from there…"

Stella's face paled, and she now looked like she was about to start crying instead.

"You were attacked by the Gyarados? C-come home right now and let me make sure you're okay!"

"I can't, I'm all the way up in Floaroma Town right now. Look, Mom, I'm really okay—"

"Floaroma Town?" Stella repeated. "Isn't that near the cave that always gets rock slides? Are you sure you're okay? You didn't run into any trouble on the way, did you?"

"No, Mom, I got here totally fine."

It was the _last_ time, when Percy _hadn't_ made it to Floaroma Town, that she'd hurt her ankle, after all. Besides, if she let Stella know about that, she'd be even more adamant about Percy coming home… The woman looked conflicted enough as it was.

"Just… Just let me know if you get hurt again, okay? I suppose that was _before_ you actually left home, so… But what if something like that happens again…?"

"But I've got Pokémon with me now, so I'll be fine," Percy said hastily.

She hated resorting to Leo's logic, but she had to admit it _had_ actually made a bit of sense. For a few moments, Stella still looked unsure, but then she nodded slowly.

"Well, if you're that determined… Are you sure you'll be fine?"

"Yes, Mom."

"And you'll call me if something goes wrong?"

"_Yes_, Mom."

"All right. See you later, dear."

With that, Stella hung up, and the phone's screen faded into static before it fully shut off. Sighing, Percy wove her way through the lobby over to one of the bookshelves on the other side; that definitely could have gone worse, she reminded herself. Sitting down on the nearby couch, Percy absently grabbed a few magazines off the shelf as she waited to get Noel back…

* * *

Percy stretched as she walked back outside. The two main things she recalled about Floaroma Town were the flower shop and the large meadow… She hadn't been particularly fond of the flower shop, but she vaguely remembered there having been a berry garden behind it, and that could be useful.

Fortunately, she'd spotted a map in the Pokémon Center, so she knew the flower shop was fairly close. Sure enough, after taking just a few turns in the path, Percy was standing in front of the small building. The door was propped open, and a whitewashed fence enclosed the area behind it.

Ducking inside, Percy looked around curiously. There were a few trainers lined up behind a counter off to the right, and another door in the back led out to the fenced area. Percy wove her way around the tables laden with flower pots, and she was stopped by one of the workers when she got close to the back.

"Oh, I'm sorry for not catching you right away! What do you need?" the woman asked.

Percy gestured towards the door. "I was just going to go back there, if that's okay…"

"Of course it is! The first six berries you pick are free, by the way."

"Great, thanks."

Percy grinned as she stepped outside. Several more trainers were out there, gathering under various trees and picking berries. A couple of them had Pokémon out, but the garden was too small for all of them to do so.

While Percy still had a couple of the berries she'd picked up when she'd caught Max, there were only a few left. If she could only have six free ones, she'd have to pick carefully…

"Hey, Nessie! Your favorites are the bitter ones, right?"

A nearby trainer was talking to her Shellos as she examined a few of the berry plants. The Shellos nodded, and her trainer hurried over to a bush covered in Rawst Berries. An idea suddenly struck Percy, and she tried to remember which berries each of her Pokémon had preferred.

"Let's see… Noel liked the Pecha Berries and Max liked the Aspear Berries… Did Mint Chip have any favorites…?"

Percy mused aloud before searching for the appropriate berries. She grabbed two of each of Noel and Max's favorites, and then she stopped by two random trees for Mint Chip.

After she went back inside, the worker she'd seen earlier scurried up to her. Percy immediately held out her hand, displaying the berries she'd picked. The worker counted them quickly, instinctively pointing at each one as she did so.

"All right, thank you for stopping by! Please come back any time!" the woman said with a smile.

Nodding, Percy exited the building and walked around a bit. After reaching a section of the path that trailed off abruptly, she stopped and released each of her Pokémon. While Mint Chip seemed disinterested, Noel and especially Max looked around excitedly at all the flowers and trees in the area.

Percy set the berries down in front of them. "Hey, I just got these, so if you all are hungry…"

Noel and Max's grins widened as they noticed Percy had picked out berries that they liked. They ate theirs much more quickly than Mint Chip did. Percy rolled her eyes, strongly suspecting the Piplup was just trying to be annoying.

After they finished eating, Percy withdrew each of her Pokémon. She gave the town another brief look over; it was much smaller than she remembered, and she wasn't quite sure where she wanted to go next.

For a moment, she thought she saw a flash of bright blue. Squinting, Percy made out another pair of Team Galactic members heading in the direction of the meadow at the edge of town; their hair must have been what she'd noticed. She immediately started walking in the opposite direction. While she wouldn't have minded going to the meadow, she definitely didn't want to deal with any more of those strange people.

"Those two earlier were a waste of oxygen," Percy grumbled, folding her arms over her chest as she walked. "Going on about weird things like that…"

It didn't take long for Percy to reach the eastern edge of Floaroma Town. As with the side she'd entered from, there was a gap in the trees that allowed her to walk out onto the next route. A bridge arched over a stream nearby, with plenty more trees in the north, and the road directly in front of her was flanked by windmills in the distance.

Percy vaguely recalled seeing a wind-energy plant on the map, and she figured a quick stop there couldn't hurt… It would at least be more interesting than going straight on to Eterna City.

Following the path forward, Percy put her hands in her pockets and whistled to herself. After a few more minutes, a large building loomed up over her, and an even larger cluster of windmills surrounded it. A sign over the door read "Valley Windworks" in faded brown text, and Percy eagerly rested her hand on the doorknob.

When she tried to turn the knob, however, it refused to budge. Percy raised an eyebrow as she tried again, and the knob merely rattled in protest.

"Well, you'd _think_ that they'd _want_ to have visitors," she muttered dryly.

She stepped back with a sigh, wondering what to do next. She'd actually been somewhat excited about going in, since she hadn't even seen the Windworks the one time she'd been to Floaroma Town before…

"Oh, no! It's that kid again!"

"Not so loudly, you moron! She'll hear you!"

"You're the loud one here…"

Percy peeked over towards one of the windows as she heard the muffled voices. A very familiar pair of Team Galactic grunts peeked back out at her, identical looks of surprise on their faces. She immediately recognized them as the pair she'd seen in Jubilife City, and the male slapped a hand over his mouth. Apparently, he hadn't realized _quite_ how loudly he and his co-worker had been speaking.

Percy smirked, putting her hands on her hips. She leaned towards the window before the two had the chance to duck away.

"Oh, yeah? Well, now I know why this place is locked up!" she shouted.

"So what? We won't let you in!" the female grunt yelled back.

"There are some guys in town who have keys, but _they_ won't let you in either!"

For a moment, the woman turned her attention away from Percy and gave the male grunt a quick slap to the face. No surprise, really, given how he'd just suggested a way for Percy to get in… Their voices returned to a more normal volume, and Percy couldn't hear them through the window anymore.

That didn't matter anymore, as Percy had heard enough. Turning around, she started jogging back towards Floaroma Town, a plan forming in her mind. True, Percy had no idea what Team Galactic was actually doing, but it couldn't be any good… And if those two grunts were any indication, it wouldn't take her too long to find out.

"Maybe they're not so useless after all," Percy commented, smirking again.

With that, she picked up her pace, eager to get back to Floaroma Town.

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: Maybe Stella's reaction was a bit lenient… But in Pokémon, even the most overprotective parents are pretty open-minded. Case in point, Bianca's dad backs down after a single lecture from Elesa. And speaking of Black & White, I couldn't resist letting Percy have a shout-out to one of Cheren's insults to Team Plasma. I bet Percy and Cheren would get along pretty well.


	10. Chapter Nine: Vs Purugly!

_Author's Note_: Another evolution, Mars, and Charon, oh my. Oh, and Looker's here too. I was originally going to split this chapter up, but then I decided against it. Hey, I've got to get my word count per chapter up to speed with my Mystery Dungeon fanfic — I mean, include as much Team Galactic in one chapter as possible.

**Chapter Nine: Vs Purugly!**

"Let's see… They went towards the meadow, didn't they?"

Percy folded her arms, standing in the middle of Floaroma Town. Though she could hear a few trainers' voices coming from the flower shop, otherwise there weren't too many people around… It was unlikely that anyone had seen the Team Galactic members.

Sighing, Percy jogged towards the meadow. She hoped they hadn't left already; wouldn't she have noticed them, though? It didn't seem like Team Galactic could do much without making a racket, and she hadn't been gone all that long…

Floaroma Town's dirt trail cut off abruptly as it passed through another tree border. Percy instinctively paused and peered slowly around the closest tree, trying to get a good view of the meadow. Several large trees with bright yellow leaves dotted the flower-covered landscape, and there was a small hut towards the middle, but otherwise it didn't look like it would be too easy to hide anywhere.

Sure enough, after a few seconds, Percy noticed a pair of Team Galactic grunts aimlessly wandering around. One of them had a rather sulky look on his face and had his arms folded over his chest, while the other just looked exasperated.

"What are even looking for?" the sulking one whined.

"Don't ask me," the other retorted, rolling his eyes. "Commander Mars just told us to come out here, so there's got to be something important…"

"Yeah, because she totally knows what she's doing."

"Like you even pay attention to orders anyway!"

Percy snickered, stepping out from behind the tree. The two grunts didn't seem to notice her right away as she strode towards them. Finally, the smarter-looking one looked up at her with a surprised look on his face when she was a few feet away from them.

"Hey! How long have you been there, kid?" he demanded.

"Long enough," Percy replied, smirking. "You might not know what you're doing here… but do you know what the rest of your team is doing at the Windworks?"

The two grunts shared a brief panicked expression before chattering to each other.

"She knows about that? We're in trouble!"

"Whatever! Like she could do anything about it!"

"You want to take that chance?"

They turned back to her, and the one that had been complaining rolled his eyes. His partner glared at her, however, pulling a Pokéball off of his belt.

"All right, kid," the grunt sneered. "I'll make you a deal. If you can win, we'll get out of here, and if I win, then you scram. Sound fair to you?"

"Sounds more like you're just looking for an excuse to waste time, but I'll take it," Percy answered.

"Believe what you want! Come on, Zubat!"

The grunt pressed the release button on his Pokéball, and the bat Pokémon materialized next to him. Smirking, Percy reached for a Pokéball of her own, but she paused for a moment before making her choice. True, Noel would have an easy time with Zubat, but she hadn't used Max or Mint Chip since her battle with Roark…

She grabbed Mint Chip's Pokéball and released the Piplup. Rolling his eyes, Mint Chip looked towards his opponent reluctantly, and Percy decided to refrain from scolding him.

"Use Bubble," she called.

"Astonish!"

Zubat fluttered downwards quickly as Mint Chip started to spew out a stream of bubbles. Before Mint Chip's attack could connect, Zubat crashed into him, and the surprise caused him to skid backwards.

Regaining his footing, Mint Chip glared and spat out another Bubble attack. Zubat shrieked as this shot actually hit him. Although he tumbled backward, Zubat recovered fairly quickly, shaking his wings to get the remaining drops of water off him.

"All right, just keep that up, Mint Chip!"

"Zubat… use Leech Life," the grunt countered.

Percy winced as Zubat rushed towards Mint Chip, his mouth open wide. Fortunately, just as he managed to bite down on Mint Chip's fin, the Piplup responded with another Bubble. The blast knocked Zubat away again, this time sending him a bit further as it had been a closer hit.

Zubat's wings were starting to sag slightly as he got back up. The grunt ground his teeth as his hand drifted towards his Pokéball, likely contemplating whether or not he still had a chance of winning. Before he had the chance to decide, though, Mint Chip used yet another Bubble attack.

Screeching, Zubat crashed to the ground, panting for a few seconds before he passed put. The Galactic member snorted as he withdrew the fainted Pokémon.

"That was a total waste of time," his partner grumbled.

"I know!" he retorted. "You don't have to tell me that. We don't know what to look for, and then I lose a battle… I'm just going to go back and ask Mars before something else happens."

"Well, you can pretend like you're just going back for directions if that makes you feel better," Percy cut in, smirking.

"Okay, this kid is getting on my nerves," the first grunt muttered. "Let's get out of here already!"

As they scurried away, Percy scrambled to keep up, hoping she'd be able to sneak into the Windworks if she stayed close enough. Before she could get too far, however, something caught on her boot, and she found herself face-first in the grass of the meadow. Percy blinked as she pushed herself up to her knees, noticing a key-chain in front of her.

She grabbed it, carefully examining the various keys on the ring. They all had the letters "_VWW_" engraved on them, followed by various numbers, and there was a small windmill-shaped pin hanging off it. Comprehension dawned quickly.

"Did one of them seriously drop their keys?" she snorted. "Whatever. At least now I don't have to worry about following them…"

Standing up, Percy dusted herself off, and then abruptly spun around when she remembered she hadn't recalled Mint Chip. He was glaring at her, though he wasn't making any move to follow her. Instead of seeming stubborn, however, Mint Chip merely looked out of breath.

After a few seconds, Percy recalled Noel looking tired right before she'd evolved. Then, a bright light suddenly surrounded Mint Chip, and his shadow started to grow taller. Percy grinned as the glow faded, revealing a Prinplup.

"Prin?" Mint Chip queried, stretching his larger fins experimentally.

"Well, sorry I almost forgot about you, Mint Chip… But that explains why you didn't follow me. Let's get out of here, shall we?"

He nodded, and Percy hastily withdrew Mint Chip back into his Pokéball. Then, she spun around and darted back through the trees surrounding the meadow.

Floaroma Town was slightly less deserted than it had been earlier, Percy noted. She saw a few trainers entering the Pokémon Center, and she heard a few more voices from the flower shop. Even so, the Team Galactic members should have been fairly easy to pick out… The fact that she couldn't spot them likely indicated that they were already close to the Windworks.

Percy sped up as she wove through the small town. Sure, the scenery was nice, but she'd passed through it enough times in such a short period. She could always come back and sight-see _after_ she figured out what Team Galactic was doing.

After passing through the eastern border of trees, Percy hurried past the stream in the middle of the route and caught sight of the windmills in the distance. The dirt path widened as she approached the Windworks, and she idly pulled the key-chain out of her pocket as she reached the door. There were far too many keys on the ring, she internally grumbled; how did the plant's workers keep track of so many?

Shrugging, she decided to just start numerically. Fortunately, the third key fit into the lock, and Percy grinned as she leaned into the door and pushed it open. It was fairly odd that they wouldn't label they key to the front door as _001_, but at least that hadn't taken _too_ long.

Oddly, the entrance foyer seemed to be abandoned, despite the fact that Percy distinctly remembered seeing a couple of Galactic members through the window earlier… Nevertheless, she decided not to complain and instead scurried down the hallway. After a couple of turns, she arrived near a half-open door that appeared to lead into a large room.

Before Percy could get a good look inside, however, she noticed the Galactic grunt standing on guard in front of the door. The woman merely raised her eyebrows as Percy stepped closer.

"Oh? How in the world did a little kid get in here?" she said in a bored monotone.

"You guys didn't exactly keep this place all that secure. Now tell me what's going on here!"

"Or what?"

Despite the fact that it was a rather childish comeback, Percy had to admit the woman had a bit of a point… What exactly could she do about them?

"Um…" Percy stalled for a moment before replying. "I've… got a friend in Interpol?"

She certainly wouldn't call Looker a "friend" under normal circumstances, nor did she have any idea how she could contact him; she didn't need to vocalize that, though. For a moment, the grunt looked like she was actually contemplating Percy's statement, but then she snorted.

"I bet you do, honey. Like it matters, though. We're about to wrap things up here, anyway, so you can't do too much harm…"

Percy quirked an eyebrow as the Galactic grunt simply waved towards the door. Either the grunts were more incompetent than she'd thought, or she really had arrived way too late to do anything… Either way, she slowly pushed the door the rest of the way open, wincing as it creaked.

She stepped into a large room that was also oddly abandoned. As she took a few more steps, a small group entered the room from the opposite direction. A few more grunts, easily identifiable by their bowl cuts, surrounded a tall, red-haired woman and a shorter, older man with glasses. The woman stretched as she grinned broadly, ignoring the complaining of all the grunts for a few moments.

"Oh, that was so much fun! I can't believe we could shrink all that down into capsules the size of Pokéballs… the boss really is a genius!"

"Mars…" the man muttered, pushing up his glasses. "Don't get too excited. We always could have taken more…"

"Shut up, Charon!" Mars snapped, the cheerful expression on her face fading abruptly. "I'm not going to listen to orders from you! Only the boss—"

"So you aren't the boss, then?" Percy cut in, folding her arms as she frowned. "I thought I heard one of them say you were the commander."

Mars looked surprised at the interruption, then turned around and glared at the grunts. Two of them in particular shrank backwards; they must have been the ones Percy had seen at the meadow.

"Who let her in? Oh well, we're finished here anyway…" Mars grumbled under her breath for a few seconds before looking back over at Percy. "Sorry, sweetie. You don't think you're playing hero, do you? You're too late."

"No, I'm not. I'm here, aren't I?"

Mars picked up on the sarcasm, scowling again. "Oh, I have no idea why anyone would want to get in our way. It's really sad — the boss's plans are so perfect! He's going to make Sinnoh so much better, just you wait and see. So… I'll hold her off while you all get out of here, understand?"

The grunts all nodded, while Charon merely wore an oddly self-satisfied look on his face. Percy frowned; it was almost as if there was something he knew that Mars didn't... Still, she didn't have time to think, as the grunts were starting to run out of the room.

"Oh, no you don't—"

Before she had a chance to stop any of the grunts, there was suddenly a Zubat fluttering in her face. Percy shrieked as she unconsciously stumbled aside and tried to swat the bat Pokémon away from her. She grabbed Noel's Pokéball, and the Luxio materialized next to her.

"Noel, use Spark!" Percy forced out.

Mars smirked in response. "Use Screech and Bite!"

Noel charged towards Zubat, her fur standing on end as static sparks surged over her body. Before she could actually hit her opponent, however, Zubat opened her mouth wide and let out an ear-rending shriek. Percy covered her ears as the sudden noise caused Noel to wince and lose her focus.

Zubat took the opportunity to swoop down and bite into Noel's shoulder. The Luxio growled in pain, but then she managed to use Spark as she'd meant to earlier. Zubat promptly let go as the electricity hit her, screeching as she fluttered away.

"All right, use Spark again," Percy called.

Nodding, Noel ran towards Zubat while she was still catching her balance. She easily crashed into her opponent as more sparks erupted from her fur. As Noel darted back, Zubat crashed to the tiled floor; for a few moments, Zubat struggled to get back up, but she fell back down with a wheeze.

Mars scowled as she withdrew her fainted Pokémon. However, a smile plastered itself on her face a moment later, and she clapped her hands together.

"Well, that doesn't even matter! That should have given everyone time to get away."

Sure enough, the sound of the front door slamming shut was audible a second later. Percy sighed; such a simple distraction tactic, and she'd fallen right for it. Next to Mars, Charon looked visibly pleased as well, smirking as he pushed up his glasses.

"I suppose that wasn't too bad after all," he mumbled. "I could have come up with better, but…"

"Will you shut up already?" Mars snapped.

"Hey," Percy cut in. "Since I beat you, would you mind telling me what you're even doing here?"

Mars gave her a blank look for a few seconds before bursting into laughter.

"You didn't think that was my only Pokémon, did you? I _might_ tell you if you can knock out my other one!"

Grinning again, Mars pulled out another Pokéball and released a particularly large Purugly. The cat Pokémon hissed at Noel as she shifted her weight from paw to paw. Noel winced, but her normal eager look returned to her face quickly enough.

"I guess… start off with Tackle, Noel!"

"Purugly, use Fake Out," Mars shot back.

Noel charged towards Purugly, and, for a moment, it looked like Purugly wasn't going to do anything. However, at the last second, she easily stepped out of the way and then rammed herself into Noel. Flinching, Noel rolled to the side, panting as she got back to her feet.

"All right, just use Spark again."

Percy frowned. She hadn't expected Purugly to be quite so quick on its feet… She shook her head as she realized Mars had just ordered a Fury Swipes; she needed to stay focused.

Noel managed to hit Purugly, and the Normal-Type yowled as electricity crackled over her. In retaliation, she rapidly scratched into Noel numerous times, hitting too quickly for her to get out of the way. By the time Purugly was finished, Noel was lying in a heap, panting before closing her eyes.

"Fine…" Percy sighed. "Let's see what Mint Chip can do."

Quickly, Percy recalled Noel and replaced her with the Prinplup. Mint Chip rolled his eyes as he materialized next to her, but he still got a focused look on his face as he looked over at Purugly.

"Use Metal Claw, okay?"

Mint Chip nodded reluctantly as he darted towards Purugly. She merely sat there licking her paw, looking unconcerned that Mars hadn't given her an order. Then, Mars abruptly clapped again as she gave a last-minute command.

"Ooh, this will make it fun! Use Faint Attack!"

Yawning, Purugly waited until Mint Chip was almost right next to her. She then quickly slipped out of the way, causing Mint Chip to lose his balance. Purugly proceeded to tackle Mint Chip before Percy had time to blink.

Fortunately, Mint Chip got back to his feet after a little effort. He then slashed at Purugly with the sharp points of his fins while she was still close to him. Purugly growled as the attack hit; she seemed to have taken a decent amount of damage by now.

"All right, see what happens if you use Bubble and then Metal Claw," Percy called, coming up with the combination on the spot.

"Trying to be smart, now?" Mars folded her arms. "Whatever! Just use Fury Swipes again!"

Purugly raised one of her paws as she charged towards Mint Chip. Before she could hit him, however, Mint Chip shot a blast of bubbles into her face. Hissing, Purugly rapidly tried to push the torrent out of her face, but the effect had been good enough; she'd gotten distracted.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Mint Chip struck Purugly with another Metal Claw. Purugly nearly collapsed, but managed to force herself back to her feet. Before she could attempt an attack, however, Mint Chip easily hit her with his other fin. This time, she fell to the floor in a heap, her tail uncurling from her midsection rather comically. Mint Chip looked smug as Mars withdrew Purugly with a shocked expression on her face.

"Well? What now?" Percy smirked as she put a hand on her hip.

"Whatever!" Mars glared. "Like it even matters that you beat me. Did you forget that everyone got away already?"

"No, but…"

"But nothing." Mars suddenly smiled again. "We got what the boss asked for, and that's all that really matters to me. I do hope you won't get in our way again, because you're pretty impressive and I don't want to be mad at you. What's your name, dearie?"

"Uh…" Percy blinked. "Persephone?"

"Good! Now I can tell everyone who we need to look out for."

With that, she strode out of the room with Charon following closely behind her. The man looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes at Percy before the two of them left fully. Percy rolled her eyes in response as she recalled Mint Chip, and then she groaned to herself. She couldn't believe she'd actually told Mars her name…

Then she frowned, realizing Mars had never actually answered her question. Curiously, Percy walked towards the door on the opposite side of the room, wondering if she could just figure it out on her own. The door creaked as she opened it, and Percy felt both of her eyebrows rise as she looked inside.

Smashed tanks and power generators were strewn across the floor. A large circuit board on the wall had cut wires hanging off all over it, and an overturned table was lying nearby. There were several filing cabinets with drawers hanging open, and numerous emptied folders were haphazardly covering the immediate area.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging sound, and Percy noticed yet another door near the filing cabinets. As she approached it, she realized it had to be someone knocking; the door's handle rattled every so often, as if someone was trying to loosen it. Percy pulled the key ring out of her pocket as she hurried over.

"Which key do I use?" she shouted.

"Oh, thank goodness — it's number _005_!"

The man's voice was somewhat muffled, but Percy managed to hear him. She quickly found the correct number and inserted the key into the knob, backing up as she pulled the door open.

A man in a somewhat stereotypical, long white lab coat stumbled out, groaning as he held his head in his hand. His dark hair was completely disheveled, and his glasses were askew. Peeking into the next room, Percy realized the man had been stuck in a fairly cramped closet with a lot of boxes; no wonder he was a mess.

"So, what happened?" she asked. "What did they want?"

The man sank into a fortunately unharmed chair as he looked up at her. "I'm… not entirely sure, to be honest. That woman just said something about collecting the wind power we've been storing up for some project their boss is supposedly working on… When I refused to hand our data over, she just locked me in there."

"I see. And you were the only one here?"

"Ah…" He looked down. "Yes, well, normally we've got more people here, but we just had the dinner break and everyone left early; I was the only one who stayed behind. That reminds me; I was supposed to go pick up my daughter from the berry shop on my way out…"

Percy raised an eyebrow. The place had just been ransacked, and that hardly seemed to be the first thing on the man's mind… Before she could say any more, however, she could hear the front door slamming open. After a few seconds of listening to frantic footsteps, there was an unfortunately familiar voice floating into the area.

"Worry not! Interpol is here!"

Looker was then charging into the room, out of breath. The Windworks employee had a stunned look on his face, but Percy merely sighed. When Looker's eyes finally settled on the two of them, he started shouting again.

"I have heard the criminals, Team Galactic, have been here! And since here you are—" he pointed at Percy dramatically "—it means that a Team Galactic member, you are!"

"What," Percy said flatly. "No, I just beat them."

"It's true." The Windworks employee nodded. "She just freed me, and she wasn't here earlier when those thieves came by."

Looker rapidly looked between the two of them, and then an embarrassed expression crossed his face.

"Oh! I have jumped to conclusions again, and apologize I must. Still, I should investigate this a bit further."

"That's fine. The other employees should be returning soon, so you can get some more information on what was taken when they get here. As my thanks, we've got some spare beds upstairs if you two need a place to stay tonight."

The man gestured towards a staircase near the closet he'd been locked in. Percy grinned as Looker nodded.

"That would be great, thanks," she said.

"It's the least I could do," the employee replied.

As Percy headed up the stairs, Looker immediately started babbling at the employee, and she sympathized with the poor man. Still, she hurried upstairs as quickly as possible, despite knowing that she'd probably get questioned later as well; she hoped for at least a few minutes of quiet rest.

With that thought, Percy kicked off her boots upon finding the bedroom, flopped down onto one of the beds, and rolled over with a grin.

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: Oh boy, I definitely beat my record for taking too long to update… Fortunately I'm on winter break now, though, and I've got a good month off from university. Hopefully this means I'll get back on some kind of regular update schedule.

Now, as to the chapter… Eh, I think Charon was difficult, though I had a good deal of fun with Mars and Looker, at least… Also, I guess I could have called this chapter "Vs Zubat" since there are two Zubat battles, but since Purugly is Mars's signature Pokémon I decided it was more important.


	11. Chapter Ten: Vs Gastly!

_Author's Note_: Eterna Forest might be my favorite obligatory early-game forest… Cheryl's pretty cool, and I'm probably one of the few people who enjoys the Old Chateau's creepier aspects.

**Chapter Ten: Vs Gastly!**

Percy yawned loudly as she sat up the next morning. While she usually disliked sleeping in, for once she wished she was capable of waking up a bit later… The guest beds at Valley Windworks had been surprisingly comfortable, so they hadn't been the cause of her getting so little sleep.

No, instead the fault lied with Looker. The man had barged upstairs to question her right when she'd been about to fall asleep, naturally. Despite Percy repeatedly telling him that all she knew was that a few Galactic grunts led by a woman named Mars had been the culprits, he'd tried to ask her more questions that would have been better suited for the Windworks employees. She certainly didn't know things like what, precisely, had been stolen, or how long the team had been there.

However, she did have to admit things had gotten quite amusing after Looker had learned that she'd fought Mars. He'd proceeded to try to interview Noel and Mint Chip, and of course he couldn't understand a bit of their responses.

Fortunately, after a few minutes of that nonsense, the employee Percy had rescued had come upstairs and interrupted Looker. He'd informed the detective that he'd remembered one of the grunts saying something about going to Eterna City. With that, Looker had promptly dashed away instead of deciding to stay at the Windworks, and Percy had finally managed to get some rest.

When she arrived downstairs, numerous Windworks employees were busily trying to reorganize their remaining data. The circuit board was still a bit torn up, but fortunately, everything else seemed to be cleaning up fairly well.

"Oh! Thanks again for your help yesterday!"

The man she'd helped the previous day waved and hurried over to her. After shaking his hand, Percy sighed and looked around.

"I didn't actually do all that much," she muttered. "I'm glad you guys are back to work already, though."

"Well, either way, you were still some help." The employee smiled, and then hurriedly dug around in some of his coat pockets. "Oh, by the way, the other workers and I decided to give you a small thank-you gift. Here you go!"

He handed her a few Potions, and Percy raised an eyebrow as she put the items into her bag. True, she hadn't gotten the chance to go shopping for her Pokémon lately, but it was a bit convenient that she'd gotten something she needed so specifically… Before she could ask the question, the man answered it for her.

"You're probably heading towards Eterna City, right? Lots of trainers stop in here for a bit of sightseeing before going into the forest," he explained. "We figured you'd need some of these anyway, since Eterna Forest is a pretty big maze."

Percy nodded. "Right, thanks. I'll be going, then."

"No problem! You're welcome back here any time!"

The employee then hurried away to answer another man's question. Percy smiled, waving at a few of the other Windworks employees as she headed towards the building's front door.

As she exited, Percy stretched again, trying to get herself more awake. The wind blowing certainly helped, she mused.

She headed back towards the dirt path leading to Route 205. Crossing the bridge, Percy watched idly as a large school of Finneon swam by. She jumped the last few steps, landing on the ground on the other side of the bridge with a slight thud.

While Eterna Forest was clearly visible on the horizon, the area right in front of Percy was surprisingly craggy. It made even less sense considering how pristine Floaroma Town was, but Percy decided not to dwell on that as she started jogging forward.

When she reached the edge of the forest, there was a rather odd, stifling feeling in the air. Percy shrugged it off as she slipped through the trees… it was likely just her imagination. It took her eyes a few moments to adjust, thanks to the thick canopy blocking out a lot of light. Then, Percy immediately realized the Windworks employee had been telling the truth about Eterna Forest being a maze; she could already see at least three different trails right in front of her.

Sighing, Percy decided to make the best of the situation. She reached for Max's Heal Ball and released the Budew, figuring he'd enjoy all the plant life if nothing else. As the Budew materialized next to her, he stretched his buds and then looked up at her curiously.

"Hey." Percy grinned. "I know it's kind of dark in here, but I thought you'd like walking around a bit."

Max tittered out some thankful noises and nodded. Then, Percy quickly looked at the paths ahead of her, trying to decide which one to take. She shrugged and decided to just go with the middle one, figuring she'd find out eventually if she was wrong, and Max scurried after her.

As they walked, a few Dustox and Beautifly fluttered overhead, scattering leaves when they settled down on tree branches. Several Wurmple dangled down from the branches on thin strings, a few of them getting a bit too close to a few Buneary for the Normal-Types' comfort. As the Buneary scampered away, Max excitedly darted into the few rays of light he could find. He sat there, looking content, while he waited for Percy to catch up.

Maybe it wasn't so creepy, despite what Percy had initially thought. After a little while, however, Percy started getting frustrated. Things were starting to look really familiar…

"Did we pass that bush before?" she mused aloud.

Max looked over at the shrub she indicated, looking confused. There were several more pathways around them now; perhaps they'd ended up circling around at some point… Percy began pressing buttons on her Pokétch, looking for the map feature and hoping it had a detailed version of Eterna Forest…

"Are you lost?"

Percy jumped when a quiet voice seemed to float out of nowhere. A few moments later, a woman in a long green dress turned a corner in the path, and she brushed aside a few strands of her dark green hair that had fallen out of a messy braid. It was no wonder Percy hadn't noticed her; she blended into the plant life so well.

"Yeah," Percy sighed. "I'm really no good with directions. Are you from around here?"

The woman nodded. "I live in Eterna, and I visit here pretty often, so I know some of the quicker routes out of here. Would you like me to show you?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Percy replied, grinning. "I'm Percy, by the way, and this is Max."

She gestured down to the Grass-Type, and he chirped out a greeting. The woman smiled down at Max before introducing herself.

"I'm Cheryl. Follow me…"

Out of the multiple paths ahead of them, Cheryl turned towards the one on the right. As Percy started walking after her, Cheryl looked over her shoulder and continued the conversation.

"I assume you're a trainer?"

Percy nodded. "I was planning on challenging the gym when I get out of here."

"Oh, really?" Cheryl smiled again, pausing before gesturing to another turn. "Let's go this way… I'm friends with the gym leader, by the way."

"What type does—"

Before Percy could finish asking her question, a startled Buneary scampered onto the trail, right between her and Cheryl. Percy stumbled backwards in surprise, and Max squeaked as Buneary ran off. For a moment, a large pair of eyes was visible between the trees where Buneary had just come from. The eyes vanished seconds later, and Percy's breathing slowly returned to normal.

"You don't look very phased. I'm guessing that's a normal occurrence here?" Percy said dryly.

Cheryl nodded. "That was probably a Gastly. There are a lot of them living in the Old Chateau, and some of them come out every once in a while… That poor Buneary."

Sighing, Cheryl kept walking. Max was still shaking, and Percy knelt down to let him crawl onto her shoulder. She hurried to catch back up to Cheryl; fortunately, the trail had remained straight for a little while.

"What's the Old Chateau?" Percy queried.

"It's pretty close to the edge of the forest, so we'll probably see it on our way out."

Percy dodged a few Wurmple crawling on the path as Cheryl made another turn. After a few moments, the woman looked over her shoulder and glanced at Max.

"Your Budew looks comfortable with you. Have you had him long?"

"For a few days… He was the second Pokémon I caught."

"Dew!" Max chirped, nodding.

"So you're new, then. I only got a Pokémon a few months ago, myself, to be honest — oh, here we are."

Cheryl cut herself off as she made one last turn. The trail stretched in a single, straight line ahead of them, and the trees thinned out after a good distance. Out of curiosity, Percy turned around; in the opposite direction, she could barely make out a building behind some fog. Cheryl seemed to catch her view, as she put a hand on Percy's shoulder and had had a worried look on her face.

"Is that the Old Chateau?"

"Yes," Cheryl replied, "though I wouldn't recommend exploring it."

"You said there are some Pokémon living in there, right?" Percy frowned. "So it can't be _that_ dangerous if they're all right…"

"They're _ghosts_! I'm guessing you haven't heard the stories about that place."

Another voice was audible in the distance. Percy and Cheryl turned around to see a brunette girl in a green cloak walking towards them from Eterna Forest's exit. She waved at Cheryl as she walked up to the duo.

"You must be new around here," she went on, looking at Percy. "I'm Gardenia, the gym leader over in Eterna."

Percy shook Gardenia's offered hand, raising an eyebrow as she did so.

"What would you be doing out here, then?" she questioned.

"Oh, not much. I, ah…" Gardenia cast a nervous look at the chateau before going on. "Cheryl just told me she was going out, and I just wanted to be sure she didn't run into anything."

Cheryl laughed gently. "You don't have to worry, dear. I was just on my way back, and all I've 'run into' is Percy here."

Percy raised her other eyebrow. "There really can't be anything _too_ bad in that building, right?"

"I'm not scared or anything!" Gardenia huffed. "It's just… You can't ever be too sure, you know? Whatever! I-I need to get back to the gym."

She turned and strode away just as quickly as she'd appeared. Sighing, Cheryl turned to Percy as an apologetic look spread over her face.

"She's normally not so jumpy, I promise," she said. "I'm going to go after her… Will you be okay from here?"

"I should be. Thanks for taking me this far!"

"No problem. It would be nice to run into you again sometime!"

Cheryl smiled again as she waved and turned around. Percy waved back, waiting until Cheryl was out of view before going anywhere. She took a few steps towards the building, casting a grin at Max.

"Want to go exploring?"

Max nodded excitedly, and Percy jogged towards the chateau. She slowed down a bit as she approached it; the grass and other plants in front of it were quite overgrown, and the last thing she needed was to trip while she had Max on her shoulder.

Percy edged around a pair of saplings, barely squeezing between them. A large set of wooden stairs began right past the two plants, and the porch creaked under Percy's weight as she walked up to the pair of doors. They must have been loose from old age, as one of them was already hanging open. By contrast, several of the windows had been boarded up, though a few of the boards looked a bit loose as well.

Max had a rather comical expression of determination on his face as Percy stepped into the building. The air inside was a bit stagnant, and the foyer's carpet was torn up in multiple places. Ignoring an odd feeling in the back of her mind, Percy took a few more steps forward.

As soon as she entered the next room, a large, foggy shape materialized right in front of her. Percy instinctively shuffled backwards, and Max squeaked loudly and launched a Stun Spore out of his buds. When the yellow spores connected with their target, there was a quiet grunt of surprise as the shape fell to the ground.

After a moment, the shadow solidified into a Gastly, and his eyes were wide as he lay there numbly. Percy took a deep breath of relief, and Max surprisingly looked a bit nervous. She absently patted him on the back as she reached for his Heal Ball.

"You don't have to stay out if you don't want to."

Max nodded, and Percy withdrew him. As she clipped the ball back onto her belt, she heard a voice giggling a few feet away from her.

"You don't have to be scared of all the Gastly! They're so cute!"

Percy blinked, looking up at the large staircase in the back of the room. A petite girl was running down the steps, and she darted right up to Percy a moment later. She pushed some of her lilac hair out of her face as she grinned up at her visitor.

"Uh… Hey there. I didn't think someone would be living here," Percy replied, actually hoping for once that she didn't sound too sarcastic. "You look a bit little to be somewhere so beat up."

"I've lived here my whole life," the girl replied cheerfully. "Do you want me to show you around?"

"Sure. You're not by yourself, are you?"

"Nope! My grandpa lives here, too. You might see him later."

Giggling again, the girl tugged on Percy's wrist and turned back towards the stairs. Her hand was oddly cold and quite pale, Percy noted. Her phrasing was a bit odd, too; she _might_ see her grandpa later?

She pushed her questions aside when one of the stairs creaked under her feet. Wincing, Percy tried to step a bit more carefully. She nearly grabbed the handrail, but refrained when she noticed how splintered it was in a few spots.

"You're kinda slow. You don't need to be so careful!"

By the time Percy arrived at the top of the staircase, the girl was already there waiting for her. She'd practically leapt up the stairs, after all, but they hadn't creaked for her once. Perhaps she just knew where all of the more solid spots were, but Percy couldn't help feeling a bit over-cautious.

Percy snorted to herself. At this rate, she'd turn into her mother; she really shouldn't worry so much.

"Yeah, you're right. So, what did you want to show me?"

"Hm… Oh! I didn't tell you my name. I'm Nix."

"That's an… interesting name. I'm Percy."

Percy regretted her choice of words when Nix started giggling again.

"At least it's not a boy's name! You know what; I'll show you my brother's room."

Nix grabbed Percy by the wrist again as she walked down the hall. Towards the end, another door was hanging open by its hinges, and Nix pulled her inside.

Despite the thick layer of dust inside, the bedroom otherwise looked quite organized. Bookshelves lined the walls, and from the quick glances Percy took, the books seemed to be arranged alphabetically. The sheets on the bed hung down at oddly even angles, almost as if someone had measured them precisely; Percy snorted at the thought.

On a desk in the back of the room, there was a very old-fashioned television, complete with an antenna attached to the back. It was currently on, though static buzzed across the screen. For a brief moment, a small form flickered across the static, though it was gone after Percy blinked.

"Rotom lives in there," Nix explained, pointing at the television.

"What's a Rotom?" Percy raised an eyebrow again.

"Just knock on the television if you want to see!"

Feeling a bit ridiculous, Percy strode up to the TV and rapped on the side of it. After a pause, a small outline was visible in the static again. Then, a shadow poured out of the screen, and it hovered around the device for a few seconds before fully forming. A small, orange Pokémon surrounded by lightning-bolt shaped appendages was suddenly grinning up at the two girls.

"Hi, Rotom!"

Nix waved at it excitedly. Rotom responded with a grin of its own, and a few sparks erupted from its body. The static on the TV's screen intensified as it did so, and then it went completely blank as a loud popping noise cracked through the room.

"Oh, that happens all the time." Nix laughed, catching Percy's baffled look. "Rotom can fix it! Right?"

Rotom nodded, and then it vanished. Static suddenly reappeared on the TV's screen, and Rotom's shadow was barely visible amidst all the garbled pixels.

"Look, here's a picture of us!"

Nix pointed at a picture frame near the television, looking excited. Percy leaned down to look at it more closely, noticing a group of six. There were three children, two girls and a boy, standing in front of their parents, and there was an older man in the background whom Percy assumed was Nix's grandfather. Her guess was confirmed when Nix started introducing everyone.

"That's me — of course! — and my big sister Hydra, and our big brother Charon, and mom and dad, and Grandpa Proteus."

Though the photo was quite faded, Percy could still tell that the entire family had the same light purple hair that Nix did. She did a double-take upon looking at the boy; there was something oddly familiar about him, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it… He was staring up at her with a rather sullen expression, and a pair of round glasses was sliding down his nose.

"You know… I met someone named Charon the other day, though I think he's just _a bit_ too old to be your brother," Percy commented.

"I wish he'd come back some day…" Nix sighed.

"What?"

"It's just me and Grandpa here. And Rotom and a bunch of Gastly, too, of course. Big brother was always so nice to me, up until right before he left, anyway…"

Nix had a rather odd lighting about her as her expression changed, as if the color was fading out of her skin. Before Percy could think about it too much, though, the lamp in the corner of the room rattled. Nix clapped, suddenly back to normal, as the bulb burnt out and Rotom appeared above the lampshade.

Percy jumped slightly higher than she would have cared to admit. Rotom hovered around the two for a moment before exiting the room by passing straight through the wall.

"Let's follow Rotom!"

Nix abruptly darted out of the room, and Percy hesitantly followed after her. Really, the house was a bit strange, but there couldn't be anything too dangerous, she assured herself. Needless worrying would get her nowhere, even if Percy was trying her hardest not to just make up weak justifications for risky situations like Leo always did.

When Percy stepped into the hallway, Nix was standing in front of a door a few feet away from her. The little girl was wearing a thoughtful look on her face, tapping her chin as she looked at the door. Suddenly, a Gastly burst out of the wall beside Nix, causing Percy to jump again as Nix giggled.

"Nah, Rotom usually likes to go in rooms by itself, so it can surprise me better… Hm…"

Nix walked past Percy to the room on the opposite side of her brother's. Percy watched her start thinking, but then Nix abruptly spun around and started waving.

"Grandpa! Grandpa! Help us look for Rotom!"

The man Percy had seen in the photo was suddenly standing a few feet away from them, in front of yet another door. Odd, Percy hadn't heard the door open… Nor had she heard footsteps, for that matter. Frowning, Percy tried to shrug it off as Proteus smiled down at his granddaughter.

"That silly little thing? It goes where it wants, and if it wants to be found, I'm sure it'll make it obvious," he replied, chuckling. "Who's your friend, Nix?"

"Percy! One of the Gastly scared her earlier—"

"He did not," Percy grumbled.

"—so I'm letting her look around so she can see it's really nice in here!"

"That's nice of you, my dear." Proteus smiled at Percy as he went on. "If there's anything you're curious about in here, don't hesitate to ask either of us questions!"

After Percy nodded, Proteus turned around and started walking away. Nix promptly started sulking, clearly upset that the man didn't seem interested in looking for Rotom. He proceeded to walk right through the wall, and Percy felt her eyes widen.

"Nix? Did you see—"

Nix was already running in the opposite direction, and Percy dashed to catch up to her. Pausing in front of another closed room, Nix looked over her shoulder, grinning mischievously.

"Hey, I bet Rotom's in here! Come on!"

Her hand pushed through the door's knob, and Nix passed through the door a moment later. Percy instinctively took a step backward, and then she ran towards the stairs. She didn't stop to breathe until she was close to the chateau's front door, and she caught herself just before tripping over a piece of the ripped up carpet.

"Percy? Where are you going?"

Nix was suddenly standing right next to her, wearing a confused expression as she tilted her head to the side. Percy edged towards the door, wincing as the shorter girl frowned.

"I need to go, uh… I'm going to look for some berries… outside… for just a minute. My Budew loves Pecha Berries, so—"

"Oh. Okay! Come back when you're done!"

Nix called cheerfully after her as Percy dashed through the door. It slammed shut behind her, and Percy felt her breathing speed up. Without looking back, Percy started walking in the direction of the forest's exit, and suddenly, she couldn't blame Gardenia for being nervous.

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: Where does Nix's name come from? It and Hydra are both moons of Pluto, just like Charon. Proteus, on the other hand, is a moon of Neptune. And, continuing with names, even if it bothers her to hear that Percy is a boy's name, she still prefers that over Persephone.

Also, I'm aware that there are no berries in Eterna Forest, and that Max has no need for Pecha Berries since he's a Poison-Type (plus I already established he likes sour berries anyway). Fortunately, Nix is too little to really understand the uses of all the different berries in the Pokémon-verse.


	12. Chapter Eleven: Vs Burmy!

_Author's Note_: Does this seem early for a happiness-evolution? I had a Budew on a recent play-through of Platinum, and he'd evolved by the time I fought Gardenia, so I think it's okay… Anyway, this is a lighter, "for fun" chapter, and several important people show up here.

**Chapter Eleven: Vs Burmy!**

"Sunlight… finally," Percy sighed.

Stretching, she ducked under the branches of Eterna Forest's last few trees. While a bit blinding at first, the sunlight was quite a relief, as were the breeze and fresh air. Percy shuddered, remembering how much of a contrast "normal" air was to the atmosphere of the Old Chateau.

After a moment's pause, an idea occurred to her, and Percy released Max from his Heal Ball again. The Budew looked around this new segment of Route 205, looking just as relieved as Percy felt. Another small stream ran through the area, and a few trees peppered the otherwise grassy landscape; Max probably appreciated the more calming atmosphere.

"Feeling better?" Percy grinned.

Max nodded, and he quickly followed Percy as she started walking. After the pair crossed the bridge over the stream, Max suddenly had a curious look on his face. He then darted towards a tree a few feet away from them, and Percy frowned as she darted after him.

"Hey, what's up, Max?"

The tree had the same bright yellow-orange leaves as the trees in Floaroma Meadow did, she noted idly. There was an oddly sweet smell in the air, and Max was eagerly waddling up to the tree's trunk. He proceeded to lick the bark, causing Percy to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

Squinting, Percy leaned a bit closer, noting several sticky patches on the bark. She touched it hesitantly and then examined her fingers. Honey, she realized; while Percy hadn't thought Max was such a fan of sweet things, he probably still thought the treat was nice.

Max waddled over to another spot of honey, and when he leaned forward to eat it, he accidentally stumbled and crashed into the tree. He squeaked in surprise as a few of the lower branches rattled. Suddenly, a Burmy was dangling down over him, looking startled.

Percy stepped backwards, raising her other eyebrow as she followed Burmy's cocoon with her eyes. He was hanging right off one of the lower branches that Max had just rattled, yet she hadn't noticed him at all earlier… Sighing, Percy started to turn around and just walk away, but then stopped when Burmy dropped all the way down and crashed into Max.

"Max, use Stun—"

Percy cut herself off when she realized Max was already launching a Stun Spore out of his buds. Burmy tensed as the spores spread over him, allowing Max to hop away from him. He then looked back at Percy eagerly.

"You want to fight him? Okay, use Mega Drain, then!"

Max nodded as a bright green glow began to surround both him and Burmy. After a few moments, Burmy started to droop, and Max was perking up even more than he had been.

Burmy struggled to move forward, likely trying to use Tackle. However, he was moving too slowly, and Max easily managed to get out of the way. It likely wouldn't take too much to defeat him, Percy mused.

"Growth and Mega Drain should do it," she called.

Max's buds swelled, and he was surrounded by another green light. Burmy drooped further, and then finally collapsed to the ground after several seconds.

Percy grinned, reaching for Max's Heal Ball. She paused, though, upon realizing Max was still glowing; it was a different kind of glow than the one from Mega Drain… His buds started sharpening into spikes as roses suddenly bloomed at his sides. His silhouette grew slightly taller, and when the light faded, Percy was standing in front of a Roselia.

"Ro?" Max queried, looking fascinated as he experimentally moved his new arms.

"Great, Max!" Percy's grin widened as she dug through her bag. "Just hang on a sec…"

She pulled out one of the Potions she'd gotten at the Valley Windworks. As she walked over to Burmy, Max continued stretching, and he twirled around excitedly. Burmy had a weak, somewhat confused expression on his face as she knelt down next to him.

"Here," she offered.

The Bug-Type slowly drank the liquid, and he perked up quickly. He gave her a thankful look as he shot back up into the tree, and Percy quickly put the empty bottle into her bag as she watched him. Turning back towards Max, she grabbed his Heal Ball and walked towards him.

"All right, let's take a break, Max, shall we?"

Max nodded, apparently through testing his new limbs already, and he grinned as Percy withdrew him. As she reattached the Heal Ball to her belt, Percy squinted at the path ahead of her. She could make out a whitewashed fence in the distance, perhaps marking the edge of the route; she recalled Cheryl saying Eterna wasn't too much further…

With that in mind, Percy started jogging, and she reached the end of the dirt trail within a few minutes. Sure enough, a paved sidewalk sprung up in front of her, along with a skyline full of old-fashioned buildings.

Fortunately, Percy quickly noticed Eterna City's Pokémon Center, thanks to its trademark bright red roof. The lobby was surprisingly full, and the line at the nurse's counter was fairly long. Percy couldn't help grumbling a bit as she wove through the large groups; why were so many people there?

After handing all three of her Pokéballs to one of the Center's staff, Percy tried to find an open chair. She managed to snag one near a bookshelf and grabbed a magazine to read as she waited. The door opened a few moments later, and Percy idly looked up from the article she'd been reading.

"Well, that was a bit disappointing," a girl grumbled as she walked in, and the boy beside her nodded sympathetically.

"You were close," he offered. "I bet you could beat Gardenia with just a little more training."

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll go check out those statues later to go cheer myself up."

"Oh, right! You were saying something about those earlier…"

Percy mused over the conversation as she watched the trainer hand her Pokéballs over to the nurse. She had heard that Eterna City was known for some old relics… Maybe she'd go check them out after she got her Pokémon back.

Frowning, Percy absently turned a few pages — the article was yet another Johto-based one, this time featuring a gushing review for the dance hall in Ecruteak City. The statues sounded far more interesting, though at least she had something to look forward to…

* * *

Percy wove through the sidewalks, heading towards the northern side of the city. Fortunately, the statues were large enough that she could see them from a distance, and they weren't too far from the Pokémon Center.

The statues were set on a large hill that had dirt steps carved into it, giving the area an almost altar-like feel. They sat on a pair of pedestals which came up to Percy's shoulders; this resulted in the statues themselves towering over her.

There was already someone standing there, she noticed. A man was staring up at the statues, looking almost bored, and his pale blue hair looked oddly familiar… Percy thought for a moment before recognition kicked in. She strode up to him and put a hand on his shoulder to catch his attention.

"Hey, we met by Lake Verity, didn't we?"

The man stiffened, shrugged her hand off his shoulder, and turned to look at her. Percy winced, almost regretting saying anything; his eyes were just as creepy as they'd been last time. After a brief pause, the man nodded and then looked back up the statues.

"We did. What do you know about these Pokémon?"

Percy raised an eyebrow. It seemed like an abrupt question, but she humored him anyway.

"That one is Dialga," she said, pointing towards the one on the left, "and the other is Palkia. Apparently, the two of them are supposed to be able to control time and space, but that's only mentioned in really old myths and such."

"They aren't labeled."

Frowning, Percy looked down at the statues' pedestals. Not only were there no engravings, but she also noticed that there were a few screws lying around the ground… It was almost like there _had_ been some kind of plaques at some point, but they'd been recently removed. Furthermore, the man was staring at her now; his eyes were as blank as ever, but she assumed he was curious as to how she knew about Dialga and Palkia.

"And?" Percy shrugged. "I used to go to that old library in Canalave City a lot when I was little. They've got some storybooks in the kid's section that talk about myths and legends, and some of them have pictures of Dialga and Palkia."

For a few moments, the two of them looked back up at the statues in silence. Dialga's statue in particular seemed to be leering down ominously at them, but Percy shook her head. Statues couldn't do anything _ominously_; maybe she was just still a bit nervous from the Old Chateau.

"It doesn't anger you that the plaques have been removed?"

Percy frowned for a moment before answering. It was actually fairly hard to tell that he was asking her questions at all; his voice barely changed inflection as he spoke. Soon, she shrugged again, though.

"Why should it? I already know what the statues are," Percy replied bluntly. "I mean, maybe it would if I hadn't heard of Dialga and Palkia before, but… There's no point in getting angry if I don't even know why the labels are gone."

"You're very… fascinating."

The man turned to look at her again, and although there was a slight shift in his voice this time, his face remained bizarrely blank. It was hard to tell if that had been a compliment anyway, given its vagueness… And frankly, the man was starting to get a bit unnerving.

"And you're very odd," Percy answered. "What are you even talking about?"

In lieu of an answer, he merely looked up at the statues, gave Percy another unreadable expression, and started walking away. She stared after him for a moment, baffled with the whole encounter. Eventually, she shook her head; perhaps it would be best if she just forgot about it.

Perhaps looking for the gym would make her feel better. Percy grinned and strode away from the statues herself, starting to cheer up already.

* * *

"Percy?"

After a pause, Percy stepped backwards and turned around, raising an eyebrow as she heard a familiar voice. She'd been wandering around Eterna City for who-knew-how-long, looking for the gym, and the distraction was a bit welcome.

After a few seconds, her eyes landed on Roark. The Gym Leader was standing in front of a particularly rustic-looking building, and he waved somewhat awkwardly as Percy walked over to him.

"What brings you here?" Percy queried.

"Oh, uh… You know about the Underground, right?"

"The… Underground?" Percy repeated.

It sounded vaguely familiar, like something Leo might have brought up in one of his various ramblings — some _totally_ "safe" activity he'd heard about and just _needed_ to try. Percy couldn't think of anything beyond that, and she shook her head after a moment.

"What does that have to do with Eterna City, anyway?" she added.

"My great-uncle is one of the people who helped build it, and he lives here," Roark explained. "I was just visiting him for a new kit. You should try it out some time… They've been building new entrances all over the place lately."

"Huh. That sounds… interesting, I guess," Percy replied idly. "I've been looking around for the gym, though, so… Do you know where it is?"

"Is this a friend of yours, Roark?"

Before the redhead could answer Percy, a tall, blond woman was suddenly walking towards them. She brushed a piece of her hair to the side as she gave Percy a look over.

"Oh, hi, Cynthia." Roark scratched the back of his neck nervously. "This is Percy. She got a badge from me a few days ago…"

Percy raised an eyebrow again. What did Roark have to be so nervous about?

"So, she's got a bit of potential as a trainer, you think?" Cynthia asked. "I was just on my way to visit those old statues, but I'm glad I ran into you if you're introducing me to someone special!"

"R-right, you've been looking into a lot of old legends lately, haven't you?"

Cynthia nodded in response to Roark's question before turning to Percy. The girl herself was a bit confused; was the fact that she had one badge really all that special? To be honest, Percy had gotten a bit distracted and started fiddling with her Pokédex during the conversation. Surprisingly, Cynthia's eyes lit up upon seeing the device.

"Oh, you must be one of those kids Professor Rowan was telling me about!"

"Professor Rowan has been talking about us?" Percy said flatly. "He's been saying good things, I hope…"

Cynthia laughed. "Don't worry, he certainly hasn't told me anything _bad_. Anyway, it was nice meeting you, but I've got to get going!"

She waved to the pair of them before walking away. After a few seconds of silence, Percy turned to Roark, wearing a perplexed expression.

"She's a bit… eccentric, isn't she?"

"You could say that…" Roark looked away for a moment before pulling something out of one of his numerous pockets. "Oh! Here's my old Underground Kit if you want it."

He handed her a small wooden box that was surprisingly heavy for its size. After Percy put it in her bag, Roark continued speaking.

"I'll explain more if I ever run into you down there, but that's got some tools you'll need for digging. Oh, and to get to the gym, you'll want to take two left turns up that way and then go straight…"

Percy nodded. "Thanks. I'll be going, then."

"S-see you around!"

Percy waved over her shoulder as she took Roark's directions. Despite the day having been rather odd, things were definitely starting to look up…

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: If I have any readers who are fans of the Ace Attorney series, you might appreciate Max's nickname a bit more now that he has roses for hands. Just throwing that out there.

Also, Cyrus is spectacularly difficult to write. It's very tempting to make him a ham of massive proportions like he is in _Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure!_ Instead, I tried to go for an Uncanny Valley effect, though I find this is more difficult in text than it is in visuals.


	13. Chapter Twelve: Vs Cherubi!

_Author's Note_: Finally, another gym battle! Gardenia's pretty cool, and Max gets some more time to shine.

**Chapter Twelve: Vs Cherubi!**

"This is an… interesting design for a gym."

Percy folded her arms when she arrived in front of Eterna City's gym building. It was shaped like a greenhouse, complete with glass panels in place of "real" walls. The glass was translucent and arranged in checkered patterns of alternating shades of green, however, throwing off the comparison a bit.

Shrugging, Percy decided to ignore the oddities and just go in. At least she'd found the building easily enough this time…

After pushing the door open, Percy paused and raised an eyebrow. A large pedestal sat in the middle of the room, and it was shaped like something between a clock and a flower. Sprinklers further divided the gym into sections, and Gardenia was sitting in front of a small patch of flowers in the back of the room.

The gym leader jumped up and waved eagerly when she saw Percy. She strode over to the edge of the flower-clock, grinning.

"Hey, there!" she greeted. "You're… Percy, right? We met in Eterna Forest."

Percy nodded. "Yeah. So what's up with this?"

She gestured around the room, and Gardenia quickly started explaining.

"Oh, you just have to walk across the 'hands' of the clock and hit the switches to make it rotate. Once you've lined it up properly, we can battle!"

"Well, that can't be too hard…"

Gardenia had nothing in reply beyond an amused giggle. As the brunette returned to the back of the room, Percy carefully climbed up onto the edge of the flower-clock. Its long hand was currently pointed towards the right side of the room, and Percy instinctively held out her arms as she walked over the "petal."

Three switches sat on the floor, one of them a bit too close to the nearby sprinkler for comfort. Percy randomly hit the one in the middle, and, after a moment, the sprinkler closest to the door shut off instead of the one closer to Gardenia. Sighing as she heard the gym leader laugh again, Percy quickly hit another switch.

This one caused the petal to turn towards the left side of the room. Percy grinned as she crossed the clock again; something useful had happened that time…

She jumped down to the floor, and, after a moment's pause, hit the middle of the next three switches. This time, the flower clock rotated back to the right side of the room instead of the back. Frowning, Percy selected the left switch, and her expression flipped when the hands started moving. This time, they lined up to the back of the room, and Percy eagerly crossed the clock and walked over to Gardenia.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Gardenia grinned again. "I'll go with Cherubi first!"

Gardenia released the cherry-like Pokémon, and Percy hesitated before selecting her own. She didn't have much of an advantage over Grass-Types… A few seconds later, however, Percy mentally slapped herself; Max would work well here.

"Okay, then… Come on, Max!"

The Roselia spun around as he materialized next to Percy, causing a couple loose petals to fall to the floor. Max looked just as ready to go as he always did, and Cherubi matched his eager look.

"All right, Cherubi, start off with Tackle!" Gardenia called.

"Max, use Poison Sting," Percy countered.

Cherubi bounced forward, crashing into Max before he had time to move. He winced but recovered quickly, and he whipped his roses forward. Purple-tinted needles shot out of them, and Cherubi squeaked as they crashed into her.

Max promptly launched another Poison Sting out of his roses before Cherubi had another chance to respond. A few of them pierced skin this time, and Cherubi started panting as her skin took a slight purple hue. Gardenia looked nervous for a moment, but she shook her head and tried to look confident again.

"Just keep using Tackle, Cherubi!"

"And you keep using Poison Sting, Max!"

Cherubi wore a determined expression, although it was lessened by a bit of wincing, and she jumped towards Max again. He stepped to the side easily, as the poison's effect was slowing Cherubi down quite a bit. However, Cherubi managed to swing around at the last second before Max could attack her, causing her smaller cherry to knock into his arm.

Max stumbled backwards in surprise, but still managed to attack Cherubi. The Poison Sting hit the smaller of Cherubi's cherries, as it was closest to him. That seemed to be her weak point, as Cherubi went skidding quite a distance and was drooping quite a bit by the time she was able to get up.

Max was about to prepare another Poison Sting, but Cherubi crumpled a second later. Percy raised an eyebrow, and Max looked surprised himself; however, Percy quickly realized that the effects of the previous Poison Sting had probably just knocked out Cherubi.

"That was a lucky shot…" Gardenia looked disappointed as she withdrew Cherubi. "Oh well. I'll just use Turtwig next!"

'_Like Leo, huh?'_ Percy mused, watching the turtle Pokémon appear next to Gardenia. Max merely shot Percy a grin, and she shrugged as she looked down at him.

"Okay, since you're ready… Keep using Poison Sting!"

Gardenia paused before countering. "Hm… Use Grass Knot!"

Turtwig didn't appear to do anything at first; he was merely shuffling his feet around. Percy smirked as Max quite obligingly launched another Poison Sting, and Turtwig winced as the needles struck him.

Max leaned forward and took a few steps, trying to get a bit closer before attacking again. However, before he could, the Roselia was suddenly face-first on the floor. Percy felt her eyebrows shoot up, and Max let out an indignant noise as he got up. Fortunately, due to his small size, he hadn't hit the floor too hard, but he looked plenty annoyed.

As Max cautiously took a step back, Gardenia started laughing. It was then that Percy noticed a few long, vine-like tangles in the grass. That had clearly been what Turtwig had been setting up earlier; Percy folded her arms and sighed, realizing she'd have to pay more attention.

"Whatever… You can get him from back here," Percy grumbled.

Max nodded, though he took another step back before using Poison Sting again. Nevertheless, he was abruptly pulled to the ground again as he did so; while the attack hit Turtwig, he'd obviously had the time to adjust his Grass Knot attack. Max's feet were now completely entangled, and he was starting to get a few bruises.

Percy scowled for a moment, but an idea suddenly occurred to her. As Turtwig leaned down and started tugging on the tangles in the floor, Max looked up and caught Percy's expression. He grinned as Percy looked down at the tangled grass in front of him, and Gardenia looked confused as she commanded Turtwig again.

"Yeah, just keep using Grass Knot!" she called. "I'm not sure what they're doing, but…"

"Use Stun Spore!"

Before Turtwig could attack again, Max quickly shook his roses, causing the usual yellow spores to float out. The Stun Spore quickly spread over the grass and floated up to Turtwig, and he stiffened as the spores hit him. Turtwig let go of the grass in front of him as he stumbled back numbly, and Percy grinned as she watched the tangles loosen up slightly.

With Turtwig no longer pulling at the grass, Max was able to easily get up and step around the knots. He strode towards Turtwig, giving a quick look over his shoulder to Percy. She couldn't believe she'd almost gotten stuck in Leo's typical "attack constantly" strategy… Shaking her head, she grinned at Max.

"All right, now go back to Poison Sting—"

"Use Bite, Turtwig!" Gardenia interrupted.

Max was close enough to Turtwig that the turtle Pokémon could lean towards him without much trouble. He managed to clamp down on Max's arm with a bit of effort, causing the other Grass-Type to squeak in surprise.

Before Percy could try another order, Max swung his opposite arm, causing his blue rose to smack Turtwig right in the face. Max proceeded to twist out of the way as Turtwig grunted in surprise, and then he easily fired off a Poison Sting. The needles easily hit Turtwig in the side, and given the close range, he crumpled quickly.

Thanks to the Stun Spore, Turtwig was struggling to get up while Max looked smug. However, there was a bruise forming on his arm from where Turtwig had bit him… Another idea quickly occurred to Percy.

"Let's go with Mega Drain, Max!"

Nodding, Max looked a bit relieved at the order. The typical green glow slowly surrounded him and Turtwig, causing Turtwig to droop further as Max's arm started healing up. Turtwig fully hit the ground with a thud a few moments later, and Gardenia sighed as she recalled him.

"Well, it's not the end yet." Gardenia's frown rapidly turned to a grin as she grabbed her last Pokéball. "And this one might surprise you…"

After she pressed her Pokéball's release button, a Roserade materialized next to her. Percy felt her eyebrow twitch as Max wore a sudden look of surprise.

"Great, a stronger version of Max," Percy grumbled. Clearing her throat, she added, "Whatever, you can deal with this, Max! Just use Stun Spore first—"

Gardenia smirked. "Use Grass Knot, Roserade!"

Max shook his roses, causing a few yellow spores to float towards Roserade. Before he could fully aim or get any more spores out, however, Roserade threw her own roses to the floor and grabbed at the loose knots Turtwig had left behind. They tightened up and sped towards Max, tripping him and causing him to fall backwards in surprise.

He flailed for a moment before hitting the ground, causing the Stun Spore to go off in random directions instead of hitting Roserade. Percy's other eyebrow started twitching as Gardenia laughed and Roserade smugly folded her arms.

"Come on, Max! Just get up and use Poison Sting!"

"Keep using Grass Knot," Gardenia countered.

Max struggled to get up, but before he could fully stand, Roserade yanked at the knots in the ground again. He promptly fell back down, and Max wore an annoyed look for a few seconds. Finally, he just tried to aim at Roserade from where he was lying, and he successfully hit her with a Poison Sting.

Roserade recoiled as she was hit. The attack hit her right in the stomach, conveniently enough, catching her off guard quite a bit. She looked just as irritated as Max had earlier as he got back up with a smug look.

"Hm…" Gardenia pondered to herself for a moment. "Okay, let's change it up, Roserade! Use Sludge Bomb!"

Nodding, Roserade pressed her roses together and launched a large ball of sludge at Max. He tried to step out of the way, but his foot snagged on a few remaining tangles from an earlier Grass Knot. Before Max could tug himself free, the Sludge Bomb hit him dead-on.

Percy winced as Max fell to the floor. He wasn't knocked out yet, but he was breathing pretty heavily… The damage from all the Grass Knot hits must have added up, with no help from Sludge Bomb, of course…

"Okay, let's go with Mega Drain, then," Percy called.

"Hurry and give him a Magical Leaf, Roserade!" Gardenia countered.

Max nodded weakly as he started to glow. Before he could summon up the strength to start draining Roserade's energy, however, she managed to launch her attack. The flurry of leaves easily hit Max, and when the leaves subsided, Max's eyes were closed in defeat.

Percy sighed as she recalled Max. "You got two of them… I guess I should go with Noel."

The Luxio materialized next to Percy, tilting her head curiously as she inspected Roserade. Sure, she wouldn't be at _that_ great of an advantage, but she'd definitely be better off than Mint Chip would be.

"Okay, start off with Tackle, Noel!"

"Use Grass Knot!"

Roserade once again pulled at the knots in the grass, trying to aim them towards Noel's feet. However, Noel quickly dodged as she darted towards Roserade, and she crashed into the Grass-Type with a slight thud. As Noel jumped backwards, Roserade stumbled for a moment, clearly thrown off balance.

"Now use Bite," Percy continued, a grin returning to her face.

Noel eagerly clamped down on Roserade's arm before she had the chance to regain her balance. She then jerked her head to the side and sent Roserade tumbling.

After hitting the ground, Roserade caught her breath suddenly and flailed one of her roses to the side. She managed to touch one of the knotted patches of grass and yanked on it, causing it to latch onto one of Noel's paws. As she was pulled to the ground as well, Noel let out a yelp of surprise.

Fortunately, Noel was more surprised than hurt, and she managed to get back up fairly quickly. Roserade, on the other hand, was finally starting to look a bit worn out. She probably wouldn't go down in just one more attack, but she was getting close, Percy could tell.

"Use Bite again," Percy called.

Gardenia frowned. "Let's go with Sludge Bomb again, okay?"

Cautiously, Noel walked around the knotted grass for a few seconds before dashing towards Roserade. In response, Roserade aimed a rose at Noel and tried to launch out another Sludge Bomb. Because she was getting a bit worn out, her aim was a bit off, though, and Noel effortlessly jumped out of the way.

Noel bit into Roserade's other arm, once again swinging her to the side. As she crashed to the floor, Noel was suddenly flung to the ground as well. Percy blinked as she tried to figure out what had just happened.

She soon noticed a few traces of sludge on Noel's side as the Luxio struggled back up to her feet. So Roserade had managed to use Sludge Bomb after all… Still, the rose Pokémon was looking even more worn out now, and Gardenia actually looked a bit worried.

"Let's see if Tackle will finish her!"

Noel promptly leapt towards Roserade, knocking her over before she'd really regained her footing. For a few seconds, Roserade weakly tried to push herself back up. However, she eventually fell back to the floor with a soft thump, and Gardenia reluctantly withdrew her.

"Well, hey! You're not bad." Gardenia reached into her pocket as she walked towards Percy. "Here! As recognition for that, I'll give you a Forest Badge!"

She handed Percy a green, V-shaped badge. Percy examined it for a moment before leaning down and showing it to Noel.

"See? We did great!"

Noel smiled in response, and Percy withdrew her as she put the Forest Badge in her bag.

"I bet you're going to go try and get some more badges, huh?" Gardenia asked.

"You bet correctly," Percy responded.

"Of course! You may be good, but I'd feel better about losing if you beat a bunch of other gym leaders, too!"

The two girls laughed for a moment. Then, Percy waved as she turned around and jumped back onto the flower clock.

"You bet I will! See you around."

With that, Percy left the building, fully ready to take a quick break.

* * *

Percy grinned to herself as she left Eterna's Pokémon Center. She was more than eager to figure out where she wanted to get her next badge, as she was still in a good mood from her battle's ending… As she started walking, Percy pressed a few buttons on her Pokétch, searching for its map feature.

Hearthome City was her closest option, she decided after a few minutes. Percy looked up and kept walking, intending to go on towards the southern exit of the city.

Before she got too much farther, however, she noticed a cyan-haired man near the Pokémon Center looking around rather suspiciously. Percy groaned when she realized he was wearing a Team Galactic uniform; what were _they_ doing here?

She carefully followed after him out of curiosity; she could always just leave him alone if he wasn't doing anything, after all… The grunt eventually reached a several-story black building and opened the door. From the quick glimpse she got, Percy could spot several other Team Galactic members inside.

"Has no one noticed these guys going back and forth?" Percy mused aloud, raising an eyebrow. "Now I'm _really_ curious…"

Then it struck her that the building wasn't too far from the statues of Dialga and Palkia. While it seemed that they were easily visible from most places in Eterna City, the statues were practically right down the street from this building… That made the missing labels even more suspicious.

While she was probably just assuming things, and going into a building full of Team Galactic members probably wasn't the best idea ever anyway, Percy's suspicion was rising more and more. Besides, she'd gotten out of the Valley Windworks safely, even if she hadn't necessarily learned much of what the team had been doing.

And before she could convince herself otherwise, Percy strode up to the building, put her hand on the doorknob, and yanked the door open.

* * *

_Author's Note x2_: If you want to get incredibly nit-picky, if Max was at a high enough level to know Mega Drain before he evolved, then he "missed" Poison Sting… The missed-via-evolution mechanic is pretty weird if you think about it, though, and I thought it would at least be better than having Noel pull Fire Fang out of nowhere (since it's only available via breeding).


End file.
